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Posted by ElectricWhite on 22-09-2016 at 14:20:

Solar System Vandalism

I wonder if Susan knew about this....

Study: Pluto 'spray-painting' poles of its big moon Charon

By MARCIA DUNN
From Associated Press
September 14, 2016 2:02 PM EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) тАФ A new study finds that Pluto is "spray-painting" the red poles of its big moon Charon.

The paint is actually Pluto's continually escaping atmosphere. Methane and other gases from Pluto end up coating Charon's frozen poles, which are so cold and where winters are so long that this buildup remains for decades.

A chemical transformation, via solar radiation, turns the polar caps a dark red.

Planetary scientist Will Grundy of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, bases his findings on observations last year by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

The study was reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, 14 months to the day after New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto.

Grundy, lead author of the paper, called it a new phenomenon for scientists.

"It's almost like Pluto is a graffiti artist, spray-painting Charon's poles with its escaping atmosphere, leaving planet-scale colored spots," Grundy said in an email. "This sort of thing might not be unusual among double planets, but we never had a close look at such a system until New Horizons flew through the Pluto system last year."

He and other scientists тАФ including New Horizons' principal scientist Alan Stern тАФ were curious as to how such a large surface feature became such a conspicuous color.

"This study solves one of the greatest mysteries we found on Charon," Stern, a co-author on the paper, said in a statement. It opens up the possibility that other small bodies in this faraway twilight zone known as the Kuiper Belt may be undergoing the same thing, he noted.
Pluto's little moon Nix, for example, has a reddish spot. But it orbits farther from Pluto and is so small that the so-called spray-painting wouldn't be nearly as efficient, according to the study.

Meanwhile, a second study finds Pluto is emitting X-rays.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory detected the low-energy rays last year. Until then, the most distant body in the solar system with detected X-ray emission was the ringed Saturn system, according to scientists. The source of Pluto's X-rays is still a mystery.

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Posted by Becky Rock on 24-09-2016 at 22:24:

Pluto just has to be different.

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Posted by KT1972 on 24-09-2016 at 22:44:

well, he is the baby of the solar system Tongue

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Posted by RIgirl on 26-09-2016 at 00:06:

I still think it's Susan ... waaayyy too much time on her hands and a girl robot can only put her antennae in curlers only so many times ... lol

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Posted by ChrisW on 26-09-2016 at 04:30:

Hehe

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