Why the Australian Outback holds the key to the mysteries of Pluto |
ABC News

Jun 11, 2022 It's the most mysterious former planet in the solar
system. Now its secrets could be unlocked by an unlikely team of NASA scientists and amateur astronomers spread out across the Australian
outback.

In 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft revealed the former planet is
not the smooth ball scientists once thought, but a complex landscape
of huge ice volcanoes and giant spikes of frozen methane.

As Pluto passes in front of a star, the team spread out across the
Northern Territory with high-end portable telescopes to capture the
rare event, called a "stellar occultation".

How the dwarf-planet's atmosphere alters the starlight will
essentially give the scientists a "weather report" for Pluto, and
provide clues about what's happening with the atmosphere, and maybe
even what lies below the frozen surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7uNg468zY8

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