A View From Pluto

Digital work

Charon in the sky, behind a thin bluish haze, as seen from a reddish tholin plain of Pluto. Some areas are covered by glaciers of nitrogen and methane ice and the distant hills are made of water ice.



Una vista de Plutón. Obra digital

Caronte en el cielo, tras una delgada neblina azulada, visto desde una rojiza llanura de tolinas de Plutón. Algunas áreas aparecen cubiertas por glaciares de hielo de metano y nitrógeno y las colinas distantes son de hielo de agua.

Lonely Sedna

Digital work

A sunny day on Sedna, as shown in this picture. The focus of light in the sky is not only the Sun, but the whole Solar System including the cloud of interplanetary dust that causes the zodiacal light.

Sedna (or 90377 Sedna) is a large minor planet in the outer reaches of the Solar System. With its aphelion estimated at 937 AU (about 31 times the distance of Neptune), it is one of the most distant known objects in the Solar System, other than long-period comets. It has an exceptionally long and elongated orbit, taking approximately 11,400 years to complete. Many astronomers conclude that Sedna is the first known member of the inner Oort Cloud.
Spectroscopy has revealed that Sedna's surface composition is similar to that of some other trans-Neptunian objects, being largely a mixture of water, methane and nitrogen ices with tholins. Its surface is one of the reddest among Solar System objects.
Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, who is thought to live at the bottom of the frigid Arctic Ocean...



Sedna solitario. Obra digital.
Un día soleado en Sedna, tal y como se muestra en la imagen. El foco de luz visible en el cielo no es sólo el Sol, sino la totalidad del Sistema Solar incluyendo la nube de polvo interplanetario que origina la luz zodiacal.

Sedna (o 90377 Sedna) es un gran cuerpo menor en las fronteras del Sistema Solar. Con un afelio estimado en 937 UA (unas 31 veces la distancia a Neptuno) es uno de los objetos más distantes del Sistema Solar, aparte de los cometas de período largo. Tiene una órbita excepcionalmete larga y elongada que tarda unos 11.400 años en completar. Muchos astrónomos afirman que Sedna es el primer miembro conocido de la Nube de Oort interior. La espectroscopía ha revelado que la composición de la superficie de Sedna es similar a la de otros objetos trans-neptunianos, estando básicamente constituida por una mezcla de hielo de agua, metano y nitrógeno con tolinas de hidrocarburos. Es una de las más rojas del Sistema Solar. Sedna, la diosa inuit del mar, que tiene su morada en las profundidades del gélido océano Ártico...

Charon from Pluto

Digital work

In 1988 the atmosphere of Pluto was detected for the first time during a stellar occultation. New Horizons spacecraft arrived at Pluto in July 2015. It found a surprisingly robust hazy atmosphere on the dwarf planet. The haze extends at least 160 kilometers (100 miles) above the surface. Clouds, haze, winds, micro snowflakes,... could all be part of Pluto's dynamic weather system. Clouds and haze must be made of the very constituents of its atmosphere: molecular nitrogen and some carbon monoxide and methane. The presence of clouds, however, is dependent on the existence of a temperature gradient, like that on Earth. And with clouds must come some form of rain or, at Pluto's distance from the Sun, snow. It is thought that clouds in Pluto's atmosphere may be composed of tiny frozen spherules of nitrogen or carbon monoxide, rather than liquid or snowflakes.
Charon, the faithful companion, is seen in Pluto's sky with a size of 3º, six times our Moon from Earth.

The frozen plains of Pluto

Digital work

Although the apparent size of the Sun is 30 times smaller than seen from Earth, from Pluto our star is still very bright, giving roughly 150 to 450 times the light of the full Moon on Earth (the variability being due to the fact that Pluto's orbit is highly elliptical). So it is still possible to read a book on Pluto. Pluto's atmosphere consists of a thin envelope of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide gases, which are derived from the ices of these substances on its surface, This atmosphere produces a noticeable blue haze which is visible at sunset.