Pluto news: methane, new photos and a huge crater

The image shows the RALPH instrument, an infrared spectrometer that detects the presence of methane on Pluto.

Methane found on Pluto

An infrared spectrometer mounted on the New Horizons probe confirmed the presence of frozen methane on the surface of Pluto. For the first time, the presence of methane on Pluto was discovered by astronomers in 1976.
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“We knew that there should be methane on Pluto, but we were able to detect it for the first time,” said Will Grandi, head of the Pluto surface research team.

Methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is found mostly underground and in the atmosphere of our planet. On Pluto, methane could initially fall from the Solar Nebula, from which our Solar System subsequently formed, 4.5 billion years ago.

New photos of Pluto-Charon system

It just needs to be seen.

Huge crater

The post-processing of the image of Pluto on June 29 shows us that the planet may have a huge impact crater. In the early photographs, it was noticeable that Pluto, to put it mildly, was not spherical, but craters of this size were a huge rarity in the Solar System.



However, what it really is finally will be known only when the "New Horizons" will approach a minimum distance from the most distant and unexplored planet of the Solar System, which will take place in just two weeks.