NASA releases new images of Pluto, revealing atmospheric haze and ice patches

NASA has released new images of Pluto, showing a mysterious “atmospheric haze” around the dwarf planet, along with some ice patches.

This image released by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, shows the blue color of Pluto’s haze layer in this picture taken by the New Horizons spacecraft's Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturn’s moon Titan. This image was generated by software that combines information from blue, red and near-infrared images to replicate the color a human eye would perceive as closely as possible. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP

THE sky over Pluto may not be sunny, but it’s undoubtedly blue.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft discovered Pluto’s surprising blue sky during the historic fly-by of the icy dwarf planet in July. The images of its atmospheric haze were beamed down last week and released by NASA overnight.

The particles in the atmospheric haze are actually red and grey, according to scientists. But the way the particles scatter blue light is what has everyone excited about the dwarf planet orbiting on the far fringes of our solar system, a twilight zone known more formally as the Kuiper Belt.

The blue colour of Pluto’s haze layer revealed.

“Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper Belt? It’s gorgeous,” Alan Stern, the principal scientist for New Horizons, said in a NASA release about the latest images.

The blue tint can help scientists understand the size and makeup of the haze particles surrounding Pluto, where twilight is constant, given the 3.6 billion-mile distance between it and the sun.

Pluto’s high-altitude haze seems to be comparable to that of Saturn’s moon, Titan, according to NASA, and the result of interaction between molecules.

This image shows regions with exposed water ice highlighted in blue. The scene is about 450km across. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

In another finding Thursday, scientists have uncovered numerous ice patches on Pluto’s surface. The exposed water ice appears to be, mysteriously, red.

Scientists said they are uncertain why the ice appears in certain places on Pluto and not others.

Launched in 2006, New Horizons is now 63 million miles beyond Pluto. Johns Hopkins University in Maryland is operating the spacecraft for NASA.