{"id":19443,"date":"2016-03-03T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T10:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/why-methane-snow-covers-plutos-peaks\/"},"modified":"2016-03-03T18:09:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T10:09:00","slug":"why-methane-snow-covers-plutos-peaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/why-methane-snow-covers-plutos-peaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Why methane snow covers Pluto\u2019s peaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_234623\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-234623\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-234623\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/160303-methane-630x328.jpg\" alt=\"Image: Pluto snow-capped mountains\" width=\"630\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/160303-methane-630x328.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/160303-methane-768x400.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/160303-methane-1240x646.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-234623\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inset pictures show a section of Pluto\u2019s Cthulhu Regio that includes a reddish plain as well as a 260-mile-long mountain range. The far right inset indicates the distribution of methane ice in purple, as observed by New Horizons\u2019 Ralph\/MVIC imager during the spacecraft\u2019s flyby on July 14, 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The dark terrain informally known as Cthulhu Regio sweeps nearly halfway around Pluto\u2019s equator, with light-colored peaks sticking up from the surrounding plains. What <em>is<\/em> that light-colored stuff? Apparently, it\u2019s methane frost.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence for&nbsp;Pluto\u2019s methane meteorology was laid out today by the science team behind NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission.<\/p>\n<p>The piano-sized spacecraft\u2019s cameras zeroed in on Cthulhu when it flew past Pluto last July 14.&nbsp;Most of the region is covered with a layer of dark reddish tholins, a substance that forms when sunlight breaks down hydrocarbons such as&nbsp;methane.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are those bright peaks in southeast&nbsp;Cthulhu: When the scientists looked closely at compositional data collected by New Horizons\u2019 Ralph\/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera, they found that the bright areas on top of Cthulhu\u2019s mountains matched up with the spectral signature of methane ice.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Pluto in a Minute: What's Next for NASA's New Horizons?\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mrVJL8x1g2I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat this material coats only the upper slopes of the peaks suggests methane ice may act like water in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, condensing as frost at high altitude,\u201d John Stansberry, a member of the New Horizons science team from the Space Telescope Science Institute, said in today\u2019s image advisory.<\/p>\n<p>Pluto isn\u2019t the only world in the solar system with methane-based weather: Saturn\u2019s mysterious cloud-covered moon, Titan, has a meteorological cycle that&nbsp;results in methane rain, mixed in with a hearty helping of&nbsp;tholins.<\/p>\n<p>In Titan\u2019s case, the surface is too chilly for liquid water, but warm enough to speculate about the&nbsp;prospects for methane-based biochemistry. At 380 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, Pluto\u2019s surface temperatures are too cold for that kind of speculation \u2013 but just right for speculating about the&nbsp;skiing conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inset pictures show a section of Pluto\u2019s Cthulhu Regio that includes a reddish plain as well as a 260-mile-long mountain range. The far right inset indicates the distribution of methane ice in purple, as observed by New Horizons\u2019 Ralph\/MVIC imager during the spacecraft\u2019s flyby on July 14, 2015. The dark terrain informally known as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4809,2174,2848,4004],"class_list":["post-19443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto","tag-pluto-flyby"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}