Pluto's "Thick" Air Isn't Going Anywhere

astroengine writes "When the proposition for NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto was put forward, there was an air of urgency. The dwarf planet is moving away from the Sun in its eccentric orbit, so astronomers were concerned that the Plutonian atmosphere would freeze out and collapse onto the surface as fresh nitrogen-methane snow before they could get a spacecraft out there to observe it. But according to new research [arXiv], it appears there's little risk of a Pluto air freeze-out. From recent occultation measurements, it appears the atmosphere is becoming denser and more buoyant, meaning it will remain as an atmosphere all (Pluto) year 'round — 248 Earth years long."

Comments

Re:Can you imagine living on Pluto?

[icebike]

Exactly!

There’s no point acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and discontinuance notices have been on display in your local planning
department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start
making a fuss about it now.

Re:Can you imagine living on Pluto?

[icebike]

But most prison sentences are given in months, and months are based on the Moon's orbit around its (dwarf) Planet, and Charon orbits Pluto every 6.387230 days. So that would be a blessing, no?