The Online Financial Times Deutschland reports that a British team of astronomers, led by Jane
Greaves of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, have found strong
evidence of global warming of Pluto’s atmosphere using the 15-meter James Clerk
Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. They also detected carbon monoxide in its
atmosphere.
The researchers also say that new findings show that Pluto’s atmosphere extends
to more than 1860 miles (3000 km) above the surface - or a quarter of the
distance out to its largest moon, Charon. Before it was thought to be only 100
km thick. Greaves will present the new discovery today at the Royal
Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Wales.
Pluto’s atmosphere appears to have expanded due to warming. Greaves says:
"The
change in brightness over the last decade is startling. We think the atmosphere
may have grown in size, or the carbon monoxide abundance may have been
boosted.”
The Financial Times writes;
"Pluto’s
extremely low density atmosphere has a fragile balance made up of the coolant
carbon monoxide and the greenhouse gas methane. It is probably the most
sensitive in the solar system, Greaves said." The far away dwarf planet is probably currently experiencing climate change,
said Greaves.
‘We
believe that the expansion of the atmosphere has grown. in 1989 Pluto passed
its closest point to the sun in its orbit. Probably the stronger solar
radiation vapourised additional ice and the atmosphere expanded.”
In the new study, scientists found that the carbon monoxide gas on Pluto is
extremely cold, at about minus 364°F (-220°C ).
"This
simple, very cold atmosphere, which is greatly influenced by the sun’s warmth,
could give us important information on the fundamental physical interactions
and thus a better understanding of the earth’s atmosphere," Greaves
said.
Yeah – like the sun plays the major role on atmospheric behaviour and climate,
even when it is 3 billion miles away (the earth is only 93 million miles away)
and that everything else, like oceans and atmospheres, reacts to its changes
and orbital changes.
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