Pluto’s hazy skies are making the dwarf planet even colder, James Webb Space Telescope finds
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Pluto, with Plantia Sputnik heat shape at the bottom of the right. . | Credit: NASA/Robert Lea (created with Canva)
Jwst Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered that the blurry sky over frozen Pluto helps cool the dwarf planet atmosphere, while at the same time a methane and other organic molecules are given a kick from the Pluto atmosphere, where it is then assembled by Rafik Pluto, Charun.
Fog was expected to be discovered in 2017 by the world of planetary Shi Chang from the University of California, Santa Cruz, to explain the reason PlutoA thin atmosphere is very leaked. Based on the measurements of NASA New horizons The spacecraft, which harmed Pluto past and Charon In 2015, the world of planets at the Observatory of Loile in Arizona will be calculated that Joe Pluto loses 1.3 kg (2.9 pounds) from methane to space every second, and about 2.5 % of this methane is intercepted by Charon, and her red luds with organic chemistry. No place in Solar power system Do we see an atmosphere leaking on a adjacent body.
The reason for this escape in the atmosphere was not known, but Zhang was causing that if the Pluto atmosphere contains a layer of fog, then this fog will absorb the extreme extremist ultraviolet light from distant sun It reaches Pluto, providing energy to give the batch particles they need to escape into space.
Besides the fog heating the weather particles so that they could escape, Zhang also realized that fog could have a cooling effect on Joe Pluto A previously discovered effect in Mysivir Pluto, the third layer of atmosphere above the actually not present and the most intense strategy.
The Mysivir Pluto was found between 20 km and 40 km (from 12.4 to 24.9 miles) and reaches a maximum temperature of 163 ° C (110 km/minus 262 degrees Fahrenheit) before cooling at a rate of 0.2 ° C per kilometer, to the minimum of km. 334 degrees Wow).
The problem was that yet, no fog has been discovered on Pluto. Then he came Jwst.
Blue Blue Fog, which is caused by the rear division of small molecules in the air in a process known as the Mi scattered. | Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Zhang had expected that any cooling in the atmosphere driven by a layer of fog would lead to thermal emission in medium -infrared wavelengths. Mid-infrared emissions were discovered from the Pluto-Charun system before, as it returned to the infrared space observatory in Europe in 1997, NASA SpitZer Space In 2004, the Herschel Space Observatory in Europe in 2012. However, on every occasion, the telescope lacked the decision to distinguish between Pluto and Charon And determine where the emissions came from. But JWST, with the initial mirror of 6.5 meters (21.4 feet) and the mid -infrared tool (Miri), is able to distinguish between Pluto and Charun. So, Zhang, as part of a team led by Tanguy Bertrand from Observatoire de Paris, has the use of JWST to detect infrared emissions from long fog.
“We use the term” fog “to describe the layers of solid atmosphere suspended in an atmosphere. “This aerosols spread light and reduce vision, and form a common and similar layer.”
Pluto atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, with samidan of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons such as methane, gasoline, cycyline and hydrogen. This is exceptionally thin. The surface pressure is only 13 ومر m microbar, compared to the ground pressure of about 1 bar. (One of the barin is equivalent to a million micropar.) Because of the low weight in Pluto, the upper atmosphere extends away from the surface, through several Bluto’s radius (the Blloot radius is 1,188.3 km, or 737 miles). All particles need a slight payment to send them to rotate from the air, and the energy to give them these incentives comes from the sun.
“A large part of the extreme solar UV rays is absorbed by the upper atmosphere, which leads to heating that indicates the loss of mass in the atmosphere,” said Bertrand. “Weather gases such as nitrogen and methane are responsible for absorbing radiation in these wavelengths.”
But how can fog can cause heating and cooling in the atmosphere?
“Cooling or heating depends on the properties of fog, such as the size of particles, shape, and composition-ice with hydrocarbon ice or non-device-which is not well known,” said Bertrand. “We are currently investigating this with the latest microbial physics [i.e., on the scale of atoms and molecules] Models. “
The ability of fog to cool or heat the atmosphere means that it controls energy balance in the atmosphere of Pluto, which affects global temperatures, air cycle and the climate that passes on the cold dwarf planet. This climate system dominates courses of sublimation and freezing of molecular nitrogen, methane and carbon oxide, which is descended from many deep glaciers in Sputnik PlanitiaIt is a heart -shaped feature on the surface of the dwarf planet.
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Zhang described this energy balance in detail. “Based on the New Horizon temperature notes from 2015, we found that heating the gas greatly exceeded gas,” he said. “Therefore, there is a clear radiological heating in the air. To maintain energy balance under these circumstances, fog must provide the necessary net radioactive cooling. But it is still unclear whether the fog has a net cooling effect during other seasons, where Pluto seasons vary greatly!”
These “seasons” differ greatly due to the elongated Pluto orbit, which takes it closer to the sun Neptune To nearly twice outside. Even here, in the depths of the solar system, this difference in the distance significantly affects the amount of heating that Pluto receives.
Pluto fog is like fog rich in hydrocarbon in Saturnmoon Titan. Both antis are caused by optical chemistry of extreme solar UV light that interact with molecules such as nitrogen and methane. Even early landBefore the appearance of an oxygen -fertilized atmosphere for more than 2.4 billion years, it may have fog of hydrocarbons in the face of Pluto, albeit more intense. Thus, understanding the Pluto Joe can teach us something about the beginnings of our planet.
the New study It was published in the Nature Astrolo magazine on June 2
