QUESTION:
Can the Hubble Telescope predict or help you predict what weather
patterns are occurring on Pluto? If so, how does it do this?

ANSWER from Marc Buie on May 26, 1996:
Pluto's weather is very different from that of the Earth.  On the Earth
the weather changes minute by minute and we need lots of detailed pictures
to keep track of things.  Pluto is not like that at all.  Things happen
very slowly and there aren't big storm systems to look for.  Pluto's
weather patterns are controlled more by how much sunlight is hitting
the atmosphere and surface and this changes very slowly over the course
of its 250 year orbit.  As Pluto moves away from the Sun, it's atmosphere
begins to slowly freeze out on the surface.  Where does it freeze out?
We don't know.  It might be at the south pole which is in permanent night
now.  It might be in other cooler areas (low or high regions).  These
changes are probably very slow and small.  By taking pictures with HST,
we can look for these changes but we'd don't need to do it every day.
All we need to do is look once every year or so and see if the bright
or dark areas on the surface change in their brightness.