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"Pluto’s Icy Heart Broke Pluto" Topic


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Tango0117 Nov 2016 3:48 p.m. PST

"Alas, Pluto. No longer a planet, so distant from its Sun, so cold, so lonely. (Yeah, sure, it's got moons, but who cares about those red-hatted jerks?) No wonder its most dramatic geological feature is a giant heart made of ice. But that heart, which is actually a nitrogen-ice covered basin called Sputnik Planitia that stretches for 1,000 kilometers, isn't just a sign that Pluto needs some love.

Sputnik Planitia has been tempting scientists since the early 90's—back when it was just a blurry bright spot on a blob of pixels. The heart-shaped feature's pull is so strong, it may have knocked its whole planet off kilter. Today, Nature published two scientific papers that contribute evidence to the theory that Sputnik Planitia's mass shifted Pluto's axis. That would make the feature the reason for Pluto's orientation towards Charon, and explain the dwarf planet's still active geologic upheaval. But the papers disagree for how Sputnik Planitia accumulated all its mass. One says the weight comes from frozen volatiles, like nitrogen, accumulating on its surface. The other argues for a giant, subsurface watery ocean. Which, as far as scientists are concerned, just means its time to get an orbiter out there to collect more data…"
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Amicalement
Armand

nvdoyle18 Nov 2016 6:11 a.m. PST

Putting a probe in orbit around Pluto will take some doing. That's a lot of delta-v…

Bowman20 Nov 2016 2:04 p.m. PST

Icy hearts have broken a lot of people right here on Earth too.

Personal logo piper909 Supporting Member of TMP21 Nov 2016 11:03 p.m. PST

Pluto loves us and wants us to be happy.

Tango0126 Nov 2016 11:13 a.m. PST

(smile)


Amicalement
Armand

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