Celestia Forums

hi all, i'm new here and i deffinitely do not want to be new for too long so here goes..

i have recently came across a single line in one of the scientific papers which stated that while pluto is moving further away it's atmospere is heating up?

if it is true, which i swear on my derranged mind to be so, has anyone heard any more about it, coz it's puzzling me yet i cannot find any more information about it.

Nah don't worry you're right...!

As far as I can make out, it's something similar to this...

Imagine you're at the beach & it's a very sunny day. At 12:00 midday, the sun is at it's highest, so you would expect that the water would be at it's hottest. BUT what actually happens is that, at around 4:00 or 5:00pm that day, the water has absorbed most of the day's heat from the sun, and that is when it's warmest!

The same thing is probably happening to pluto. Even though it reached perihelion (closest point in it's orbit to the sun) back in 1989, it's still recieving enough extra warmth to keep the temperature rising ever so slightly.

Also (although i'm not sure about this) gases which were frozen on the surface, but then melted & formed a slight atmosphere during the time of perihelion, could be causing a greenhouse effect type thing on the surface, trapping a small amount of extra heat.

Welcome to Celestia Chey
Hope you are enjoying it.

I sure am darkmiss, thanks

however, i am pretty sure there is more to this pluto thing... i just cannot find it but if it was only something as "ordinary" as it was explained than i do not thing it would even be cared to mention.

One explanation I came across is that the southern polar cap is now exposed to sunlight. It's evaporating and forming an atmosphere which is slowly condensing at the north pole.

hmmm, i am still looking

A Google search on "pluto" "atmosphere" and "warming" turns up a lot of information, of which this web article is typical. Thermal lag (as described by Jack) or cold volcanism stirred up by the recent perihelion heating seem to be the main contenders, and there doesn't seem to be a huge sense of surprise in the reports I've scanned. What makes you feel there must be more to it?

Grant

i suppose 1 degree in 12 years is rather alot for a planet that far away, and considering its moon is half its size and relatively close, not to mention all other thousands of objects floating about in the belt...it's no wonder they want to send a probe to study it since we do not really know much about it

anyhow, maybe it is my own desire to find that there is smething bigger and more interesting going on there and not just a thermal lag