cosmicvastness: Haze Layers Above Pluto This image of haze…
Haze Layers Above Pluto
This image of haze layers above Pluto’s limb was taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. About 20 haze layers are seen; the layers have been found to typically extend horizontally over hundreds of kilometers, but are not strictly parallel to the surface.
New Horizons scientists have authored the first comprehensive set of papers describing results from last summer’s Pluto system flyby. Above the surface, scientists discovered Pluto’s atmosphere contains layered hazes, and is both cooler and more compact than expected. This affects how Pluto’s upper atmosphere is lost to space, and how it interacts with the stream of charged particles from the sun known as the solar wind.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1t8rA18.
