The new model suggests that Pluto's atmosphere may reach as far as 6,456 miles into space--that is more than 50 percent of the way to Charon, and approximately 4.5 times the diameter of Pluto itself. "That is amazing, from my perspective," Justin Erwin said in the November 26, 2012 Space.com. Erwin, the lead author of the paper, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia.