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Sunday 12 September 2021

Pluto Time

 

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Rather nerdy this, but NASA has a tool to see how bright it would be if you happened to be standing on Pluto. A chap would need his thermals to do that of course, but I tried it this morning and found it to be brighter than I expected. To be honest, almost pitch dark was what I expected.


Pluto orbits on the fringes of our solar system, billions of miles away. Sunlight is much weaker there than it is here on Earth, yet it isn't completely dark. In fact, for just a moment near dawn and dusk each day, the illumination on Earth matches that of high noon on Pluto.

We call this Pluto Time. If you go outside at this time on a clear day, the world around you will be as bright as the brightest part of the day on Pluto.

6 comments:

djc said...

Yes, very bright (7:30pm in SW England). I wonder how big the sun appear from Pluto; if it was not so bright and we were able to look at it directly would it appear larger?

Sam Vega said...

Just done it. 7.29pm for us in the warm bright sun-kissed South. It was a lot brighter than expected. Even with an overcast sky. Who knew that you could read on Pluto - at least during your lunch hour.

More importantly, would solar panels work on Pluto? Because if they do, we in the South of the UK will probably be OK after Boris has finished with us.

Doonhamer said...

Is Pluto brighter than Boris?

A K Haart said...

djc - as I understand it, the sun viewed from Pluto would be far brighter than our moon viewed from Earth in spite of the huge distance. I'm not sure if you would be able to look at it directly, but with any amount of haze it could appear larger than it should.

Sam - presumably solar panels would work but not very well, although having a very tenuous atmosphere would help. Maybe a candidate prison planet.

Doonhamer - Pluto is much brighter than Boris and less remote from reality here on Earth.

wiggiatlarge said...

Mind you this August that would have applied to all daylight hours so dark it has been in this part of the world.

A K Haart said...

Wiggia - not too summery here in Derbyshire either. Autumnal at times.