New Study Suggests Abundance of Nitrogen on Pluto May Be Due to Cryovolcanism

A spectacular image of Pluto’s atmosphere backlit by the Sun, taken during New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto on July 14. The bright halo of Pluto’s atmosphere is caused by the scattering of sunlight from nitrogen, a compound that dominates the planet’s atmosphere. A new study suggests that the source of all this nitrogen [...]