In a news conference on Friday, scientists working on NASA's New Horizons mission has unveiled that the total mass of Pluto's atmosphere has declined by half in two years. Considered to be quite astonishing thing, the researchers said that it indicates that something is wrong.

Prof. Michael Summers at George Mason University in Virginia said for an atmospheric scientist, this revelation is quite surprising. Mission's lead scientist, Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo, was of the view that Pluto has quite a complicated story to tell.

He affirmed that they need to do a lot of work before they understand about it. Till now, the spacecraft has sent back around 4 to 5% of the observations of the craft's instruments. The experts said that the mission demands patience.

From now to mid-September, majority of the data from the craft will be focused on engineering information and scientific data will also be there. Stern said that the new information they have is based on the Pluto's big heart, which has been named as Tombaugh Regio.

Pluto's east and west lobes are quite different, as ice deposits on eastern lobe are much thinner than the ones in the west. Prof. Summers was of the view that New Horizons' data is changing the way they used to think about Pluto's atmosphere. It would not be wrong to affirm that they have to start from scratch.