Planetology The NASA sent around Pluto sent a first packet of data collected during its flyby the dwarf planet …
” Today we received the first sample of the scientific treasures collected during [overflights by Pluto New Horizons], and I can you say that it surpasses all expectations largely “enthused Wednesday the director of NASA science missions. Because it is new and historical overview, take the time to open that treasure chest and see what he has in his stomach.
A high cube 3.5 km
Among the small packet of data released Wednesday night, a particular picture holds the attention: zoom to a Pluto equatorial region 250 km wide, covered in mountains – structures that do not expect find there. If Pluto is small, the mountains, they impose in, culminating at 3,500 meters. Methane and nitrogen covering Pluto is not strong enough to form such heights, it is believed that these mountains are composed of ice composed of water – a phenomenon made possible by the extremely cold temperatures prevailing on this very body from the Sun.
Unexplained activity
In this picture zoomed, the most surprising is not what is seen, but what is not seen. Pluto is an old lost planet in the Kuiper Belt, an area filled with debris that bombard regularly and are expected to leave many craters. So where are they, these craters? With what energy does the world come to the “erase”? If the question is asked, it is because Pluto is supposed to be dead. Formed shortly after the birth of the solar system, she could not keep the heat from the giant impact having created it and its moon Charon. And those two are not subject to a warming tidal effect. So, to explain the activity of the two bodies, scientists evoke alternately radioactivity, an underground ocean has retained an old heat billion years, or snow which hide the missing craters. The truth is that for now, we do not know.
A black pole
Just under big as Pluto, Charon has in turn disclosed in an unpublished photograph sent Wednesday by New Horizons. “We see a large dark area at the north pole, we nicknamed Mordor, there are cliffs, canyons whom [top right of the image] probably did 10 km in depth,” explains Cathy Olkin, deputy director of the mission. Like Pluto, Charon seems to have a surprising geological activity – reflected the absence of craters and diversity of reliefs. As for the “Mordor”, it could just be a layer of dark material, perhaps the result of gas ejected by Pluto and being deposited on the moon.
A hydra 111 pixels
Pluto has four moons, very small: Nix, Styx, Kerberos, and Hydra. For now, only the latter is revealed in pictures … or rather in pixels. A cluster of 111 pixels, exactly, that hints squinting a bit a very irregular shape and many reliefs. The scientists add that the object is 43 km out of 33 km, it is probably covered with water ice, and they expect anyway the next data to deliver other details. New arrivals: Friday and Friday post. In total, it will take sixteen months for New Horizons eventually to communicate all the data collected during his few hours of flying 12,500 kilometers of Pluto.
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