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Re:New Horizons Will Have Little Time to Measure Pluto’s Atm... by Osmium on Tuesday June 30, 2015 @07:33PM (#9809070)
Curious, but how much of an effect would temperature have on a planet's ability to retain an atmosphere? A colder planet of equal size will presumably be capable of maintaining a thicker atmosphere, but I'm not sure if that'd be a significant factor in this case or not.
Re:New Horizons Will Have Little Time to Measure Pluto’s Atm... by Sharlin on Wednesday July 01, 2015 @08:38AM (#9811425)
Proximity to the sun is a crucial attribute with respect to density of an atmosphere, both due to heat input (hot molecules escape easier) and solar wind density (energetic particles strip away molecules in collisions.)