The most detailed images of the entire surface of Pluto
5th February 2010
Pluto, was once classed as the ninth planet of our solar system but was demoted in 2006 to a dwarf planet instead by the International Astronomical Union. This body on the edges of our family of planets is a ball of rock and ice at just 70 % the size of Earth’s Moon, bone shatteringly cold, and takes 248 years to orbit the distant Sun.
But astronomers have noticed amazing seasonal colour changes on this small world. Pluto has become a lot redder than it used to be according to latest Nasa pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. They show a disk of dark areas, brighter areas, and parts that look almost Mars red. This reddening is 20 % more than previously observed. The brighter areas in the north and darker parts in the south are thought to be nitrogen melting on the sunlit pole and then freezing again on the more colder pole, according to Nasa scientists. These dramatic changes in the ice on the surface are believed to be the result of Pluto entering a new phase in it’s long 248 year trek around the Sun.