NASA has released a new photo of Pluto's dark side showing a strange glowing spot on New Horizons.
Judging by the photograph, the spot is about 16 km in diameter and hovers in the lower region of Pluto's atmosphere. What is it? Naturally, the assumption immediately arose that the station "New Horizons" accidentally photographed an alien ship. But no, scientists believe that the strange object has a more natural origin, although also mysterious.
Researchers believe that this is most likely a huge cloud that has reflected the sun's rays.
But when it comes to Pluto, a cloud of this size is also unusual. This is not the first cloud that scientists have seen in photographs taken by New Horizons, but for the first time the station has recorded such a large cloud mass (if it is, of course, it). Computer models have long suggested that massive methane clouds could appear in Pluto's natural environment. And now scientists have found confirmation of this hypothesis.
Coupled with volcanoes spewing ice, and huge icebergs floating in a sea of liquid nitrogen, this new data is once again changing the face of Pluto, whose landscape is not nearly as rocky and monotonous as people previously thought.