Scientists found the complex organic molecules on surface of Pluto with Hubble Telescope

There is a new evidence of complex organic molecules found by the Hubble Space Telescope on Dec 21. Scientists believe that it is the carbon-containing building blocks of life on the surface of Pluto.



On the cold surface of Pluto, there are some substances absorbing ultraviolet ray, the researchers said that it might be organics, possibly complex hydrocarbons or nitrogen-containing molecules.



“This is an exciting finding because complex Plutonian hydrocarbons and other molecules that could be responsible for the ultraviolet spectral features we found with Hubble may, among other things, be responsible for giving Pluto its ruddy color,” study leader Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement.



“The discovery we made with Hubble reminds us that even more exciting discoveries about Pluto’s composition and surface evolution are likely to be in store when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto in 2015,” Stern said.

Ps. original version published on the website of Taiwan News by Theresa Huang