Title : Pluto in a Minute: The Other Red Planet Duration : 01:17 Posted : 25 Mar 2016 - 12:05
Pluto in a Minute: The Other Red Planet
What's cool about Pluto? Get a quick peek at the latest science in this daily update from NASA's New Horizons mission, on track for a flight past Pluto on July 14, 2015. Move over Mars, we've got a new red planet! We all know Mars as the red planet, and it's red because there are iron minerals in the rocks. At some point in Mars' wet past, those iron minerals oxidized leaving behind a rusted planet. But Pluto is red for a different reason. We know that Pluto's atmosphere and surface contain quantities of methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide. We also know that pluto gets hit with sunlight. When UV light from the Sun reaches pluto and interacts with the methane molecules, it actually breaks them apart and creates a reddish gunk called tholin. Electrons from galactic cosmic rays can also do the same thing to methane: break it apart to create tholin. That thorn then silts down and settles, giving the planet a reddish hue. NH will soon make it's close fly by past Pluto and use spectroscopy to verify that that is indeed the process that is making the planet red. In the meantime, we can still see its reddish hue from the Earth. For more on that story and other news from Pluto be sure to check out the new horizons websites, and tweet your questions using the hashtag #PlutoFlyBy. And of course, come back tomorrow for more Pluto in a Minute. To learn more about the mission visit: http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
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