Mathematics, Informatics, Physics: Science and Education

Electronic scientific journal

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2025)
MATHEMATICAL MODELING AND COMPUTATIONAL METHODS

Features of the physical characteristics of Pluto's atmosphere based on observations and model estimates

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  • Anatoliy Vidmachenko,
  • Oleksandr Mozghovyi
Anatoliy Vidmachenko
National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine
Bio
Oleksandr Mozghovyi
National Transport University
Bio

Published 2026-11-26

Keywords

  • Pluto,
  • atmosphere,
  • atmospheric components,
  • haze,
  • modeling

Copyright (c) 2025 Анатолій Відьмаченко, Олександр Мозговий

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Features of the physical characteristics of Pluto’s atmosphere based on observations and model estimates. (2026). Mathematics, Informatics, Physics: Science and Education, 2(2), 233–241. https://doi.org/10.31652/3041-1955-2025-02-02-07
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Abstract

The temperature near Pluto's surface varies from 33 K to almost 60 K due to the elongated shape of its orbit. Under such conditions, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, water, and methane freeze. The main component on the surface of the dwarf planet is nitrogen ice. Near the perihelion point, due to heating, it changes from a solid state to a gaseous state, increasing atmospheric pressure. However, Pluto's atmosphere is very thin and consists of nitrogen with admixtures of methane and carbon monoxide. Under the influence of solar ultraviolet radiation, more complex compounds are formed from these compounds: ethane, acetylene, ethylene, etc. When moving to aphelion, these compounds fall to the surface of Pluto. The New Horizons space probe equipment detected a layered blue haze in Pluto's atmosphere, which covered the entire dwarf planet to a height of about 300 km. This haze over the northern polar regions was found to be almost 3 times denser than over the surface in the equatorial region. Most likely, it can be formed from particles that were synthesized from atmospheric gases under the influence of hard solar radiation.

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