Space

Pluto’s Interactions With The Solar Wind Are Unique, Study Finds

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Pluto's interaction with the solar wind
Using data from an instrument aboard the New Horizons spacecraft gathered on its Pluto flyby in July 2015, scientists have observed the material coming off of Pluto and seen how it interacts with the solar wind. This figure shows the size scale of Pluto’s interaction with the solar wind derived from the data. The bow shock is indicated by the extension of the locations where the study’s authors measured the light, solar wind ions to be about 20 percent slowed down from the upstream solar wind speed. The Plutopause (purple) is a finite-sized boundary layer ~0.9 Pluto radii thick at the nose and separates the solar wind (blue) from the heavy ion tail (red). Even though the heavy ion tail extends back more than 100 Pluto radii at the time of the New Horizons flyby, the upstream interaction is very compact and the bow shock is almost compressed onto the obstacle.
Credit: American Geophysical Union.

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