Pluto is warming

Pluto is warming

"Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our SOLAR system have in common. Hmmmm. SOLAR system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder."
(source: The Fred Thompson Report)

Comments 1 to 1:

1. schulwitz at 16:13 PM on 10 August, 2010
   Two questions:
   
   1. Where are the scientific citations for "What the science says..." section?
   
   2. The following statement has major logical flaws:
   
   "Any Plutonian warming cannot be caused by solar variations as the sun has showed little to no long term trend over the past 50 years and sunlight at Pluto is 900 times weaker than it is at the Earth."
   
   First off, why is it necessary for the sun to undergo long term variations over several decades for solar variations to affect Pluto? That is, why are short term variations completely irrelevant? For an extreme example, let's say the temperature of the sun doubled overnight and stayed that way for a year, only to fall back down to normal the next year. Does anyone seriously believe that such an extreme (but temporary) solar temperature jump wouldn't affect Pluto's temperature?
   
   Secondly why does the fact that the sunlight is 900 times weaker on Pluto necessitate that Pluto is not warming due to solar variations? Presumably the fact that Pluto is 500 times smaller in mass than the Earth with essentially no atmosphere plays a role, no?

Post a Comment

Political, off-topic or ad hominem comments will be deleted. Comments Policy...

You need to be logged in to post a comment. Login via the left margin or if you're new, register here.