Webb Watches Haze Rise and Fall in Pluto's Atmosphere

When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system. Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) taken over the space of a week, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System.

Jun 4, 2025 - 23:14
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Webb Watches Haze Rise and Fall in Pluto's Atmosphere

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this image of Pluto's surface shrouded in atmospheric haze. (Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system. Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) taken over the space of a week, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System.