A blue halo around Pluto seen from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, taken when the spacecraft was 120,000 miles (200,000 kilometers) away from Pluto."

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A blue halo around Pluto seen from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, taken when the spacecraft was 120,000 miles (200,000 kilometers) away from Pluto. "Scientists believe the haze is a smog resulting from the action of sunlight on methane and other molecules in Pluto's atmosphere. This reaction produces a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that accumulate into small haze particles which scatter blue light. As they settle down through the atmosphere; the haze particles form numerous intricate horizontal layers that extend to altitudes of over 120 miles (200 kilometers)."

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Size: 3900px × 2194px
Photo credit: © NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/SEA Photo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomy, blue, crescent, glowing, halo, horizons, key, light, nasa, planet, planetary, pluto, receding, space, space-age