{"id":1934,"date":"2010-02-07T23:06:27","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T22:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:13:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:13:29","slug":"hubble-look-at-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/archives\/1934","title":{"rendered":"Hubble look at Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/imgsrc.hubblesite.org\/hu\/db\/images\/hs-2010-06-a-web_print.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px 20px; float: left;\" src=\"http:\/\/imgsrc.hubblesite.org\/hu\/db\/images\/hs-2010-06-a-web.jpg\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"400\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a>Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has been a speck of light in  the largest ground-based telescopes. But NASA&#8217;s Hubble  Space Telescope has now mapped the dwarf planet in  never-before-seen detail. The new map is so good, astronomers  have even been able to detect changes on the dwarf planet&#8217;s  surface by comparing Hubble images taken in 1994 with the newer  images taken in 2002-2003. The task is as challenging as  trying to see the markings on a soccer ball 40 miles away.<\/p>\n<p>Hubble&#8217;s view isn&#8217;t sharp enough to see craters or mountains,  if they exist on the surface, but Hubble reveals a  complex-looking and variegated world with white, dark-orange,  and charcoal-black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a  result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant Sun breaking up  methane that is present on Pluto&#8217;s surface, leaving behind a  dark, molasses-colored, carbon-rich residue. Astronomers  were very surprised to see that Pluto&#8217;s brightness has changed \u2014 the northern pole is brighter and the southern hemisphere  is darker and redder. Summer is approaching Pluto&#8217;s north  pole, and this may cause surface ices to melt and refreeze in  the colder shadowed portion of the planet. The Hubble  pictures underscore that Pluto is not simply a ball of ice and  rock but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic  atmospheric changes.<\/p>\n<p>Click the image to enlarge. Original site is <a href=\"http:\/\/hubblesite.org\/newscenter\/archive\/releases\/2010\/06\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-posts\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has been a speck of light in the largest ground-based telescopes. But NASA&#8217;s Hubble Space Telescope has now mapped the dwarf planet in never-before-seen detail. The new map is so good, astronomers have even &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/archives\/1934\">Continua a leggere<span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[663],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scienza","tag-spazio"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19921,"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/19921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maurograziani.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}