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Pluto Atmosphere
Image
Glowing eclipse against a black background
Courtesy of NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI
Caption
When Pluto passed in front of a star on the night of August 15, 2018, a SwRI-led team of astronomers measured the abundance of Pluto’s atmosphere, shown here in New Horizons 2015 flyby data, as it was briefly backlit by the well-placed star. These data indicate that the surface pressure on Pluto is decreasing and that its nitrogen atmosphere is condensing, forming ice on its surface as the object moves away from the Sun.