PLUTO’S ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE

Why in news?

• A team of scientists have derived accurate value of Pluto’s atmospheric pressure which is 80,000 times less than the atmospheric pressure at mean sea level on Earth.
• It was calculated from data obtained by observation of stellar occultation by Pluto.
  • An occultation happens when a celestial object gets hidden from the view of the observer due to another celestial object passing in between them.
• Data was calculated using 3.6-m Devasthal optical telescope (DOT) (India’s largest optical telescope) and 1.3-m Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) telescopes located at Devasthal, Nainital.