Pluto Has Blue Sunrises & Sunsets [Photos]

The New Horizons spacecraft of NASA discovered more interesting phenomena in Pluto. The dwarf planet was found to have blue skies, similar to Earth.

Space.com reported that recent flyby images of New Horizons showed that aside from having high ice mountains and glaciers, Pluto had blue sunrises and sunsets. Alan Stern, principal investigator of New Horizons, from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, shared his surprise at how blue skies could exist in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is located beyond Neptune's orbit and is comprised of icy entities forming a ring. He described the discovery as glorious.

The new image is actually the first color image of Pluto's atmosphere. Reportedly, the blue color originates from tholins, which are complex organic molecules in the atmosphere of the dwarf planet. Tholins may be red or gray but scatter light in blue wavelengths, resulting to the blue hue of Pluto's sky.

NASA stated that ultraviolet radiation from the sun divides methane and nitrogen high above the extended atmosphere of Pluto, causing complex molecules like tholins to form. When these subsequently move down to the surface, a reddish-brown color is produced, which explains why the planet has the same tone. However, the researchers are still trying to determine why the water ice on the dwarf planet appears red.

Earlier in July 2015, New Horizons detected methane in Pluto for the first time. The spacecraft observed the gas using its infrared spectrometer. Based on a report by Popular Science, the methane may have been frozen since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. The recent discovery of Pluto's blue sunrise and sunsets gave researchers a better perspective on how methane is distributed across the planet.

"That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles. A Blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules." Said mission member Carly Howett of SwRI.

Jason Cook of SwRI also noted that most of Pluto do not feature exposed water ice, since it is most likely covered by other more volatile ices across majority of the planet. They are trying to know why water appears in its current locations and not in other places.

New Horizons is 3.1 billion miles away from Earth at present and is in good condition. The team plans to do a flyby of another object in the Kuiper Belt in 2019 of NASA allows.