Before New Horizons spacecraft’s close flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto, who had imagined that the Kuiper belt object will be one of the most interesting places in the solar system? Scientists studying data collected by the NASA probe have found that Pluto is becoming the most complex object in the observable universe.

On Thursday, New Horizons team published a set of five papers whose findings are based on data and images beamed back by the spacecraft. The new details have revealed a lot of information about what makes Pluto and its moons complex space objects. The papers have been published by journal Science.

The new science papers not only offer understanding about the dwarf planet, but also transform astronomers’ view about it and the Kuiper Belt, said Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal investigator. The new data showed that Pluto and its natural satellites are worlds with diverse and active geology, he added.

One of the papers reveals how Pluto gets its hazy atmosphere. According to the research paper, concentrated particles and gravity waves combine together to cause atmospheric haze. The team also found that upper atmosphere of the trans-Neptunian object is much colder than previously estimated.

“We’ve discovered that pre-New Horizons estimates wildly overestimated the loss of material from Pluto’s atmosphere. The thought was that Pluto’s atmosphere was escaping like a comet, but it is actually escaping at a rate much more like Earth’s atmosphere”, said Fran Bagenal, lead author of one of the five research papers.

The data also showed that methane is primary escaping candidate on Pluto, and not nitrogen. It was a surprising find as near the object’s surface the atmosphere has over 99% nitrogen, said Randy Gladstone, an author of a paper on Pluto's atmosphere.