On Pluto discovered snow

Until now, almost all news about Pluto, which spoke of the planetoid landscape meant the various objects, formed by ice (water, nitrogen, methane, etc.). On snow as such it was not, and on the mountains without too much talking ...

But now scientists say the possible detection of these mountains, which are hidden under a layer of methane snow. It is about 420 km long region of Cthulhu (Cthulhu). This region has a reddish color, a more saturated color than the adjacent areas. This shade is most likely due to the presence Tolya. They are a mixture of various organic copolymers formed in an atmosphere of simple organic compounds such as methane and ethane, by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Tolya found on other planets and planetoids of the solar system, including Titan.

High resolution images showed that the mountain of Cthulhu in the region, especially the highest ones, are characterized by high brightness. The reason - a light material, which contrasts with the darker color of the surrounding surface. According to scientists, this material is methane snow.

"The fact that this material covers only the upper slopes of the peaks may indicate that methane ice in Pluto's atmosphere acts like this, the water in the Earth's atmosphere condenses at high altitude," - says John Stanberry, a spokesman for the team New Horizons
Picture size shown above - 680 meters per pixel. The actual size of the region with photos - 450 * 225 kilometers. I get a shot at a distance of 33,900 kilometers from the surface of Pluto, about 45 minutes before the time of closest approach New Horizons Pluto device.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/272138/