Pluto Has Dramatic Season Changes

14 February, 2010 - 07:00 AM - 4 Comments

When the Hubble pictures taken in 1994 of Pluto are compared to 2002-2003 photo’s there are some dramatic changes like brightening of the Northern pole and more reddish coloration. Based on the latest studies and findings it is estimated that Pluto has more visible surface changes than any other planet in the solar system.

Researchers say the brightening in the northern hemisphere could be the result of nitrogen ice vaporizing at the sunlit pole and then refreezing at the opposite pole which is not illuminated, but do not have a reasonable explanation for why the red coloration shift is occurring.
Pluto Seasons Pluto Has Dramatic Season Changes

Pluto also has such violent seasons due to its unusual orbit which has it almost the closest it has been to the Sun in decades, and it will be the furthest from the sun in the year 2108. By contrast Earth and Mars have visible changes with polar caps melting in the summer and growing in the winter, but this is not nearly as extreme as the seasons on Pluto.

Extremely detailed images of Pluto will come in 2015 when the New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Pluto and snapshot some of the most detailed photos of Pluto’s surface to analyze composition and make up.

-Dragon Blogger

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Written by Justin Germino (1518 Articles Published)

Working in the IT Industry for over 10 years and specializing in web based technologies. Dragon Blogger has unique insights and opinions to how the internet and web technology works. An Avid movie fan, video game fan and fan of trying anything and everything new.

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ileane

Hi,
I didn't realize that you study the solar system too. I've done quite a bit of research in the past but I haven't been keeping up with my studies since I started blogging. Are you following the Cassini mission? They have some awesome images of Saturn and her moons. http://ciclops.org/index.php

Thanks for the Pluto updates.
.-= ileane´s last blog ..Blogging Legacy – Have You Considered Yours? =-.

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dragonblogger

I love Astronomy and actively follow the discovery of other planets in other solar systems or read whatever articles on news.google.com come up (or sciencedaily.org / physorg.com). I am following the Cassini mission but only read articles every week or so, not daily on it.

Gomez@AutoGlass

Pluto is my favorite planet... I don't care if it's not officially a planet. It is to me.

I saw this somewhere else, too, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Not as interesting as Europa over in Jupiter's orbit (there's my favorite moon).
.-= Gomez@AutoGlass´s last blog ..Saturday Silliness and the Kia Sorento =-.

I think we are likely to find some life in bacterial or viral form on at least one of Jupiters moons due to the fact that water flows on Europa. Possibly some of Saturn's moons as well.