NASA's plane telescope SOFIA discovers reasons for Pluto's haze

NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astromy (SOFIA) has observed that Pluto’s haze is formed from faint light of Sun 3.7 billion miles away as it moves through an unusual orbit. observations are published in scientific journal Icarus.

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SOFIA's observations

Remote observations of Pluto by SOFIA, which is NASA’s telescope on an airplane show that thin haze enshrouding Pluto is made of very small particles that remain in atmosphere for prolonged periods of time rar than immediately falling to surface. SOFIA’s data clarified that se haze particles are actively being replenished – a discovery that is revising predictions on fate of Pluto’s atmosphere as it moves into even colder areas of on its 248-Earth-year orbit around Sun. 

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Michael Person, lead author of paper and director of Massachusetts Institute of Techlogy’s Wallace Astrophysical Observatory said, "Pluto is a mysterious object that is constantly surprising us. re had been hints in earlier remote observations that re might be haze, but re wasn’t strong evidence to confirm it really existed until data came from SOFIA. w we’re questioning if Pluto’s atmosphere is going to collapse in coming years – it may be more resilient than we thought.”

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observations were made New Horizon's in July 2015 

SOFIA observed middle layers of Pluto’s atmosphere in infrared and visible light wavelengths, and soon after, New Horizons craft probed its upper and lower layers using radio waves and ultraviolet light. se combined observations, taken so close in time, have provided most complete picture yet of Pluto’s atmosphere.

agreement between data gared remotely by SOFIA and from New Horizons’ close flyby supports that occultation observations from Earth can provide high-quality data between craft missions.

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(with inputs from ANI)