Pluto's ghostly blue ring seems like it came straight out of a supernatural movie, but it's made of lethal poison in reality.
Several moons and planets, including Earth, are commonly shrouded by haze. But Pluto's blue haze is by far the most bizarre.
Pluto's Blue Haze
NASA names Pluto's blue haze bands as photochemical smog that results from sunlight's reaction on methane and other molecules in its atmosphere.
New research suggests that Pluto's blue haze is made of ice crystals with encased cyanide. Researchers believe that when sunlight hits Pluto's upper atmosphere, chemical reactions form molecules of hydrogen cyanide--which is a lethal poison--mixed with ethylene and acetylene.
Panayotis Lavvas, leader of the recent study published on Nature Astronomy, tells SYFY Wire, "Solar radiation can break these molecules, and reactions among the fragments are the starting point of a complex organic chemistry." Researchers add that hydrogen cyanide is a typic byproduct of photochemistry.
The newly frozen molecules on Pluto's atmosphere are frozen into small ice particles that scatter sunlight. As gravity sinks, the tiny ice particles other gasses in the atmosphere condense around them, resulting in the eerie blue haze.
Celestial Body Haze
Similarly, Titan, Saturn's moon larger than Mercury, was observed by the Cassini Missions to exhibit haze. Often compared to Neptune's moon, Triton's new research suggests that there are explicit differences between the haze on Titan, Triton, and Pluto.
New Horizons was used to further investigate the phenomena on Pluto and Triton.
Careful analysis of Cassine and New Horizon's findings reveals via computer models that Titan should experience the same chemical reactions; it would only be able to emit roughly half the size of Pluto's haze.
Lavvas explains that the cause of the difference between both celestial bodies is the presence of atmospheric temperature. Pluto is significantly colder than Titan; it forms condenses organic molecules before reaching the large molecular size observed on Titan.
Researchers say that another key difference between Titan and Pluto's haze is its composition. Pluto's haze is composed of organic ices; while, Titan's is of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of PAHs.
PAHs tend to aggregate until it reaches an equilibrium, making the molecules too heavy and buoyant to stay in the upper atmosphere. These PAHs sink to lower layers of the atmosphere where they grow due to their density. The result: carbon-based aerosols in the lower atmosphere of Titan.
Although Pluto's haze nor its atmosphere is obviously not safe for human consumption, it could unlock the secrets of other celestial bodies' haze and what Pluto has to offer.
"Applying the theory developed for Pluto's haze to Triton's case, we found that organic ices can also explain Triton's haze observations from the Voyager II missions," says Lavvas
Pluto's mysterious blue haze may seem like the stuff of nightmares, but it isn't'. Science has been able to identify exactly what makes the eerie blue haze, but it is lethal.
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