Pluto thought to be warming up

ABC News ^ | ABC News

[MNJohnnie]

Astronomers at the University of Tasmania have found that the solar system's smallest planet is not getting colder as first thought and it probably does not have rings.

Dr John Greenhill has collected observations from last month's event when Pluto passed in front of a bright star, making it easier to study.

French scientists have shared the measurements they took in Tasmania that night, which indicate that the planet is unlikely to have rings.

Dr Greenhill says the results are surprising because they show Pluto is warming up.

"It looks as though the atmosphere has not changed from 2002, which is pretty surprising because we expected the atmosphere would freeze out as the planet moved further away from the Sun," he said.

"But so far, if anything, the atmosphere has gotten even denser."

[pepperdog]

Damn those SUVs! When are they going to be banned from interplanetary travel? Just look what they've done now.

[bamahead]

ping

[Reily]

Remember Titan has rivers & lakes of methane.
I bet W & his oil buddies are trying to 'stuff a oil rig' into the last space shuttle right now!

[Toidylop]

Are you sure that Pelosi's body double is not on Pluto? Scientic research has discovered Pelosi to be the major source of hot air on earth!!!

[hollywood]

Oh my God!!!!! It's worse than we thought!!!! It's Solar System Warming!!!!!!!!

[zeugma]

According to Celestia, (free download of Coolest Program Ever), as of 9pm Central time this evening, Pluto is 4 hours 12 minutes  43 seconds away from Earth at LightSpeed.

To put this into perspective, (au = Astronomical Unit - roughly 93 million miles)

Mercury = 5m 30.1s (.66142 au)

Venus = 12m 35.3s (1.5135 au)

Mars = 20m 36.5s (2.4779 au) 

Jupiter = 43m 19.2s (5.2083 au)

Saturn = 1h 24m 27.4s  (10.145 au)

Uranus = 2h 40m 29.1s (19.296 au)

Neptune = 4h 1m 46.6s (29.071 au)

Pluto = 4h 12m 43.1s (30.387 au) 

[bigLusr]

Nope.

Between 4 and 7 hours... depending on where it is in its orbit.

[Alas Babylon!]

LOFL!!!!

[Lokibob]

Why, on every thread. does somebody HAVE to say "it is Bushs fault"? Honestly, FReepers are more creative, I would think.

[citizencon]

Al Gore's "movie" (hehheh) coming soon to a theater near you, Pluto...

[Robert A Cook PE]

Couple of other web sources show Pluto's average radius is 40 times that of earth.

So if earth is 8 light-minutes from the sun, Pluto is 40 * 8 minutes or 320 light-muntes from the sun.

Solar particles are slower than light waves, so they travel slower. Heat is transmitted by what's radiating from the sun, and any "gasses" emitted from earth are meaningless. In fact, ALL of the greenhouse gasses are too heavy to be released from earth's gravitational pull away. Only the lightest gasses would leave earth into free space.

[MrEdd]

Why, on every thread. does somebody HAVE to say "it is Bushs fault"? Honestly, FReepers are more creative, I would think.

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Threatens Solar System!

[cripplecreek]

I once read that if the earth was represented as a baseball in Manhattan, pluto would be the size of a pea in San Fransisco.

[Fudd Fan]

Must be all those SUVs.

[maggief]

That stuff can make you f'n Goofy ... oops, this is a Pluto thread. ;)

[Reaganesque]

So, NASA has now discovered evidence of global warming on Mars, Jupiter and Pluto. And yet, according to Al Gore and his disciples, the debate as to what Global Warming is and what or who is causing it is over. It would appear that Pluto's atmosphere is not the only thing getting denser.

[dighton]

Not a moment too soon.

That place is cold.

[TommyDale]

"That stuff can make you f'n Goofy ... oops, this is a Pluto thread. ;)"

I've seen it do some strange things to people.

[Wuli]

There are minor little scientific reports that have continued to crop up over the recent years that indicate every planet in our solar system is going through some form of major climate change, displaying data and patterns very different from previous observations.

Even our own moon has, just since the 1970s, developed a slight atmosphere of sulphur compounds. They were always present in the moon but something (energy) has caused them to only just recently be released into the weak gravity of the moon. (Or maybe Neil Armstrong left his SUV up there on autopilot).

[MNJohnnie]

It would appear that Pluto's atmosphere is not the only thing getting denser.

OH MY GOD! That was funny. I am going to be chuckling about that one for days.