NASA's Chandra X-Ray observatory sheds new light on dwarf planet, Pluto

X-rays have been detected by NASA Scientists using the Chandra X-rays observatory. New information about the dwarf planet have been concluded through the new observations.

Chandra X-rays observatory was aimed on the dwarf planet and it’s natural satellites. Each time Chandra pointed at Pluto – four times in all, from February 2014 through August 2015 – it detected low-energy X-rays from the small planet.

Pluto is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt. A ring or belt contains a vast population of small bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. 

The Kuiper belt extends from the orbit of Neptune, at 30 times the distance of Earth from the Sun, to about 50 times the Earth-Sun distance.  Pluto’s orbit ranges over the same span as the overall Kupier Belt.

The immediate mystery is that Chandra’s readings on the brightness of the X-rays are much higher than expected from the solar wind interacting with Pluto’s atmosphere.