
Blue skies, frozen water detected on Pluto - Mz
Http://phys.org/news/2015-10-blue-sky-red-ice-pluto.html
======
rasur
"Blue skies are seen on Earth because of the scattering of sunlight by very
small particles of nitrogen."

I read this as implying Nitrogen could also be large?

~~~
claudius
It appears the article is referring to tholins[1], which are actually
molecules containing nitrogen rather than atomic (or even diatomic) nitrogen.

Nitrogen atoms themselves are essentially always the same size, except when
either a) more neutrons have been added to the core, creating a different
isotope of nitrogen (in this case the atom is still very much the same size,
just heavier) or b) electrons have been added/removed from the outer shells,
creating a chemically differently-behaving ion.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tholin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tholin)

~~~
rasur
Thank you for the clarification. Much appreciated.

------
gcb0
pluto has 1/6 the mass of the moon. after we mine that much (which will easily
happen with the free for all that is going to happen soon) we can bring pluto
into orbit around the moon and the sun proximity will instantly terraform it.

if we send a ship with a solar ion engine by now it will arrive right on time.

~~~
adrianN
Good luck getting the delta v required to move a rock the size of Pluto down
to our orbit.

