hfdhgdshdghdhdgdshaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaPluto has nitrogen glaciers flowing down from

its distinctive, icy heart. And the dwarf planet's thin atmosphere may have begu
n to freeze out onto its surface a change long expected, as Pluto moves farther aw
ay from the Sun, but never before seen.
Scientists with NASA's New Horizons mission unveiled the findings, and a raft of
new images, at a press conference on July 24, just ten days after the spacecraf
t flew by Pluto.
A radio-science instrument aboard the New Horizons probe measured the surface pr
essure at Pluto for the first time, in what amounts to a measure of the mass of
the atmosphere above it. What scientists found puzzled them.
The mass of Pluto's atmosphere has decreased by a factor of two in two years, said
Michael Summers, a team member and planetary scientist at George Mason Universi
ty in Fairfax, Virginia. That's pretty astonishing. Measurements taken from Earth,
starting in the late 1980s when Pluto was closer to the Sun, suggested that Plut
o's atmosphere had actually gotten denser in the past couple of decades. That we
nt against some theories that the nitrogen-dominated atmosphere would freeze out
and condense on the surface as Pluto moved farther from the Sun.
Summers cautions that the new measurement is just one data point and still needs
to be confirmed.
Measurements taken from Earth, starting in the late 1980s when Pluto was closer
to the Sun, suggested that Pluto's atmosphere had actually gotten denser in the
past couple of decades. That went against some theories that the nitrogen-domina
ted atmosphere would freeze out and condense on the surface as Pluto moved farth
er from the Sun.
Summers cautions that the new measurement is just one data point and still needs
to be confirmed.
At the same time, he and his colleagues have spotted layers of haze in Pluto's t
hin atmosphere. The haze appears in bands extending up to 160 kilometres above t
he surface, which is roughly five times higher than scientists had predicted, Su
mmers says.
Pluto's atmosphere is replenished by ices that sublimate off its surface. New Ho
rizons has identified three major types of ice nitrogen, methane, and carbon monox
ide all within the bright 'heart' feature called Tombaugh Regio.
Nearby, close-up images of the edges of fractured plains called Sputnik Planum r
eveal the nitrogen glaciers. At Pluto's frigid temperatures about -235 C, 38 degree
s above absolute zero water ice is too brittle to flow. But nitrogen can, which me
ans the features must be made of nitrogen, says William McKinnon, a team member
and a planetary scientist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. To see
evidence for recent geological activity is really a dream come true, he adds.
So far, the New Horizons spacecraft has sent back about 5% of the data that it h
as collected.