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The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula

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(Old) picture of Pluto captured by the New Horizons spacecraft (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 8 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Does anyone know why it looks like Pluto has an atmosphere in this picture?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Short answer? Because it does. It doesn't take much to be visible compared to space.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t think any planet^1^ has surprised us more than Pluto.

^1^ I know. If anyone gets pedantic, they’re reclassified as a dwarf clown.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Pluto's atmosphere has been studied since the 1980s, using spectroscopy and stellar occultation (watching starlight flicker as Pluto passed in front of it). It wasn't a surprise when New Horizons observed it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

I wasn’t thinking about the atmosphere. I meant in general, Pluto surprised more than other first fly-bys. Uranus is obviously extra weird in a lot of ways but who was expecting Pluto to be as interesting?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

Oh wow that's really cool! I didn't know.

It's about one millionth of the pressure of earth's atmosphere at sea level.