In a recent NASA blog post, Kelsi Singer, a researcher at Southwest Research Institute working on NASA’s New Horizons, goes over an interesting discovery made about Pluto: It seems to have a near infinite supply of nitrogen.
Pluto is Gassy
The most recent images returned by New Horizons shows that Pluto’s surface is mostly composed of nitrogen, just like Earth’s. There is; however, about a 20 percent difference in composition; Earth’s atmosphere is around ~78 percent nitrogen while Pluto’s is ~98 percent. Another interesting fact is that the nitrogen in Pluto’s atmosphere is actually leaving, and at a pretty alarming rate. According to Singer, the nitrogen is escaping at an estimated rate of “hundreds of tons per hour.”
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Pluto is Gassy
The most recent images returned by New Horizons shows that Pluto’s surface is mostly composed of nitrogen, just like Earth’s. There is; however, about a 20 percent difference in composition; Earth’s atmosphere is around ~78 percent nitrogen while Pluto’s is ~98 percent. Another interesting fact is that the nitrogen in Pluto’s atmosphere is actually leaving, and at a pretty alarming rate. According to Singer, the nitrogen is escaping at an estimated rate of “hundreds of tons per hour.”
Other pictures also