TRENDING

 

Researchers learned of the tail’s existence from a technical instrument called Solar Winds Around Pluto (SWAP for short). The tail isn’t furry, but it is composed of cold, dense ionized gas. It also extends tens of thousands of miles behind the tiny planet—nearly forty times Pluto’s diameter. 

This cavity in the solar wind isn’t uncommon. Plasma tails have also been found surrounding Mars and Venus, but in Pluto’s case, it’s caused by the dwarf planet being, well, small. Its atmosphere is made up mostly of nitrogen, which is slowly being stripped away as molecules escape. These molecules are then ionized by solar ultraviolet light, swept up by the solar wind, and carried past the planet, forming the tail.

While NASA scientists don’t know the exact shape or length of the tail (they estimate it’s somewhere between 48,000 and 68,000 miles long—woah), they hope to know soon when New Horizons sends back more data next month.

Fran Bagenal, head of the New Horizons Particles and Plasma team, notes to NASA that, “Once we know [the rate at which Pluto is losing its atmosphere], we’ll be able to answer outstanding questions about the evolution of Pluto’s atmosphere and surface and determine to what extent Pluto’s solar wind interaction is like that of Mars.” 

Almost fifty years after the first lunar landing, NASA is finally getting the first actual images of Pluto from New Horizons, and now to be learning even more about the dwarf planet is pretty exciting. We can't wait to see what else there is to find out about our galaxy and even the universe beyond.

What kind of information are you hoping to learn about our littlest planet? Are you following NASA's latest discoveries?

Photos credit: NASA

by Kelly Myslinski | 2/1/2016