Solar wind around Pluto is 'unlike anything seen in the solar system': Space weather unlocks more...

[Eugene]

Source: Daily Mail

Solar wind around Pluto is 'unlike anything seen in the solar system': Space weather unlocks more secrets of the dwarf planet's surface

By ABIGAIL BEALL FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 12:49 GMT, 5 May 2016 | UPDATED: 18:11 GMT, 5 May 2016

Although it has not been regarded a planet since 2006, Pluto continues to excite and surprise astronomers the more they learn about the dwarf planet.

Last year Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first pictures, and since then it has revealed surprising features including icy lakes, a complex atmosphere and mountain ranges.

Now the latest New Horizons data shows the way it interacts with the solar wind is completely unique, and surprisingly it makes it seem more like a larger planet than a comet.

Solar wind is a stream of high-energy, charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, flowing outward from the sun.

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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3575113/Pluto-s-astonishing-interactions-solar-wind-make-look-like-cross-planet-comet.html

Source: Discovery News

Pluto Behaves More Like a Planet Than Thought

MAY 6, 2016 12:19 PM ET // BY JASON MAJOR

Apologies to all of the Pluto-isn't-a-real-planet folks out there but researchers have found a way in which this ever-surprising world acts more planet-like than dwarf-like: how it interacts with the solar wind.

During New Horizons’ flyby through the Plutonian system in July 2015, the spacecraft’s Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument measured what happens when charged particles streaming out from the sun interact with Pluto’s atmosphere.

What was observed was a much less subtle comet-like interaction (as had been previously suspected) and more a hybrid comet/planet behavior, with the solar wind being deflected abruptly but relatively close to its upwind-facing surface.

“This is a type of interaction we’ve never seen before anywhere in our solar system,” said David J. McComas, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University and lead author of the study. “The results are astonishing.”

Surprisingly, Pluto is able to maintain a gravitational grasp on much of its thin atmosphere even as ions are being stripped away by the solar wind into a long tail (which, by the way, is also found on other planets like Earth.)

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Read more: http://news.discovery.com/space/pluto-behaves-more-like-a-planet-than-thought-160506.htm

[greiner3]

1. So Pluto is the largest 'Black Monolith'

All the reasons of the mini planet, solar wind, atmosphere, mountains and now it's moon has a high albedo. Could it be Pluto was manufactured and only meant to be found once our technology was sufficiently advanced. Naw but makes a good sci fi plot. I smell movie rights😎