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Pluto, the planet once and now the dwarf planet, is an incredibly hostile world with respect to life. Pluto, which is near the edges of the solar system, far from the sun, is incredibly cold. Its fine atmosphere, mainly composed of nitrogen, has persisted despite the temperatures at the bottom of the rock, but new research suggests that this trend could change and that Pluto's atmosphere could collapse completely in the next few years.
A massive research effort to study climate models on Pluto gave shocking prediction in a new article published in the journal Astronomy and astrophysics. The team suggests that all of Pluto's atmosphere could disappear by 2030.
The study of a planetary body as far away as Pluto is not an easy task, and it is even more difficult to study the fluctuations of its atmosphere. Scientists were able to make their observations through a phenomenon called occultation, which occurs when a planet or other object passes in front of another more distant object.
In this case, the researchers closely observed Pluto passing in front of distant light sources such as the stars. As Pluto passed these distant stars, their light crossing its atmosphere offered clues as to its status. With these data, scientists have been able to track a dramatic increase in atmospheric pressure and Pluto's temperature.
Knowing that Pluto's atmosphere is largely composed of nitrogen, the researchers realized that free-falling temperatures quickly caused its collapse. During the winter of the planet, the temperatures drop sufficiently so that the nitrogen freezes, condenses and accumulates on the surface as a gel. Anticipating this trend in the near future, Pluto's entire atmosphere seems poised to freeze and collapse over the next decade.
"The atmospheric pressure has tripled in the last three decades, but as the dwarf planet is in orbit, our modeling has shown that most of the atmosphere would condense almost completely," said Andrew Cole, co-author of research, in a statement. . "Our predictions show that by 2030, the atmosphere will freeze and disappear on the entire planet."
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