9 Things The New Horizon Probe Has Taught Us About Pluto

6. It€™s Actually Red

There have been many artists€™ impressions of pluto over the years and pretty much all of them have depicted the little icy world as a sort of blue colour. Probably because it has an average surface temperature of -233°C and, in most peoples€™ heads, blue = cold. Our first high resolution pictures of Pluto confirm it is in fact more of a reddish brown colour, similar to Mars (although Mars isn€™t actually red, but that€™s another story for another time).

The red colour may come from the interaction between the sun's rays and methane ice on Pluto's surface. As the sun breaks the methane down, it causes an ultra violet reflection that appears red. The red colour has been glimpsed before by the Hubble telescope, but never in so much detail.

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