RRJ#3, Hubble Images Show Pluto Changing Color

¤ Reference

The Associated Press (2010, February 4). Hubble Images Show Pluto Changing Color. The New York Times (Space&Cosmos). Retrieved on February 15, 2010. From
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/04/science/AP-US-SCI-Pluto.html?_r=1&ref=space

¤ Summary

Pluto’s color is changing to red. Astronomers who study planet’s colors are surprised. When people who don’t study planets see this picture, they might say it’s a yellow-orange color, but astronomers say it is 20 percent more red than before. These pictures show us that ice frozen nitrogen on Pluto is changing. Astronomer Marc Buie of the southwest Research Institute in Boulder said, “It’s a little bit of a surprise to see these changes happening so big and so fast.” Pluto didn’t change its color from 1954 to 2002. Buie can explain the red color on the planet, but he doesn’t explain why changing color is recently so fast. The planet has a lot of methane, which tends to make the planet red or dark. These pictures were taken in 2002 and studied why it changes so fast, but they didn’t find why. At the same time, the picture of the Pluto’s moon was also taken but it didn’t change. Thus it’s not an instrument mistake. The reason of difficulty of studying Pluto is that Pluto cycles the sun every 248 years. So, even astronomers don’t know what is going on when the planet is in the farthest position from the sun.

¤ Reaction

The situation in Pluto is really interesting to me, because nobody exactly know what happened in Pluto. Pluto is in the solar system and the farthest planet in solar system. Pluto has about -382 Fahrenheit spot. After Apollo went to the moon in 1968, the industry of the Universe has been developing. Many people including me think we know many things about the Universe and have defeated some part of solar system, because many movies show us a spacecraft and an alien. But the real world is not like that. The moon is the nearest planet to the earth. Also, going to the moon is not easy. I think the Universe has many mysteries and potentialities. We may find new resources that we need, but we can’t find them on the earth. Therefore, people should invest more in the Universe. I also worry about the life span of the planet. I heard every planet has a life time. Nobody knows why Pluto’s color is changing fast. If Pluto’s life time is almost at the end, and if it is just the beginning to the end of another planet’s life, this is a serious problem. Thus I believe we need more attention to the Universe, especially the solar system.