Pluto’s as a planet is very intriguing. Despite being located far from the Sun; Pluto has seasonal changes due to its tilted axis (just like earth!) and highly elliptical orbit. When Pluto is closer to the Sun in its orbit, the frozen nitrogen, and methane on its surface can temporarily sublimate, creating a thin atmosphere. This atmosphere can lead to the formation of haze and clouds, which is a reason on why Pluto appears reddish. However, as Pluto moves farther from the Sun, its gases refreeze, and the atmosphere collapses back to a thin layer of frost on the surface. The surface of Pluto is diverse as it has plains, mountains of water ice, and regions covered in tholins (uv light hitting carbon), which is a mixture of complex organic compounds that give the surface its reddish appearance. The most famous feature on Pluto is the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio, a plain named after the discoverer of Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh. This region is a very new surface feature, that was most likely formed by the convection of nitrogen ice. Pluto’s terrain and weather is very dynamic, despite its small size and large distance from the Sun, it remains to have unknowns that interest lots of Physicists today.
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Robert Navarro 
One response to “Robert Navarro, Blog Post 05 FUN FACTS ON PLUTO”
Hi Robert, thanks for explaining these cool processes that occur on Pluto. I think the video is really interesting and helped me visualize how the surface of Pluto would look and be affected by its very elliptical orbit. I wonder if the mountains in the video move much due to the slight sublimation.
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