re space news from feb aw st jbreed doink b b ingr com james b reed writes in article c ros uy zoo toronto edu henry zoo toronto edu henry spencer writes pluto s atmosphere will start to freeze out around and after about increasing areas of both pluto and charon will be in permanent shadow that will make imaging and geochemical mapping impossible it s my understanding that the freezing will start to occur because of the growing distance of pluto and charon from the sun due to it s elliptical orbit it is not due to shadowing effects where does the shadow come from there s nothing close enough to block sunlight from hitting them i wouldn t expect there to be anything block our view of them either what am i missing pluto can shadow charon and vice versa george krumins george krumins gfk uxa cso uiuc edu pufferfish observatory
