Organics on Pluto

Pluto may have been downgraded to 'dwarf planet' status, but there are still big discoveries to be made on the icy world.  A recent study using the Hubble Space Telescope has detected possible evidence of complex organic molecules on Pluto's surface.  Pluto is known to harbor ices of methane and nitrogen, and when high energy cosmic rays interact with these ices, organics can form.  And while it isn't likely that Pluto has any Little Green Men, organic molecules are the building blocks for life as we know it.  It's also these organics that may give the Plutonian surface its ruddy color.

Little is known about the surface of distant Pluto (NOAA).

Pluto is a member of the Kuiper Belt, a ring of frigid asteroids and dwarf planets that extends from just beyond the orbit of Neptune, at 30 AU, out to about 50 AU (1 Astronomical Unit, AU, is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun, or about 150 million km).  There are more than 70,000 documented Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), and several of the larger objects seem to share Pluto's reddish surface, indicating that organics may be prevalent in the distant reaches of the solar system.

Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope aren't the only way scientists are keeping tabs on Pluto and other KBOs.  NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is set to flyby Pluto in 2015.  Launched in 2006, New Horizons left Earth with the fastest ever launch speed of a man made object, at over 58,000 km/h.  It will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto, and its closest approach will put it just 12,500 km above Pluto's surface.  New Horizons will then continue on its journey farther into the Kuiper Belt.

A thorough investigation of the Kuiper Belt is necessary to fully understand how our solar system formed.  Identifying locations of organic molecules, and studying how those molecules came to be, will also help in explaining how life arose on our own planet. It may also give clues as to where to look for life on other worlds or in other star systems.  With luck, further Hubble observations and the New Horizons spacecraft will reveal more about mysterious Pluto.