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Old 11-February-2006, 03:43 AM
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Mr. Milton Banana Mr. Milton Banana is offline
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Question Pluto-Transient Atmosphere?

My guess is that the temperature on Pluto at its lowest is 50 degrees above absolute zero. So, my question is-while Pluto gets just close enough to the sun to develop an atmosphere (I'm guessing methane), how thin an atmosphere are we talking about? Can there be winds? How strong could they be? And when Pluto goes back to its furthest point from the sun, does the atmosphere fall back onto the ground as snow? What would that process look like? Would you see the gases condense as snow/ice on the ground, or would there be some barely perceptable snow flurries on Pluto?
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Old 11-February-2006, 06:23 AM
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I fathom it to be rotating with a powdery wisp of silicate dust lodged in the crevices of its rocky surface. But various "ice" patches could identify its origin.
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