10 Cool Discoveries About Pluto

Five years ago, after an epic 10-year voyage of more For the first time ever, the surface of this distant This close-up of Wright Mons, planet was revealed in spectacular, colored detail. one of many potential than 3 billion miles, the SwRI-led New Horizons Pluto’s surface includes towering mountains, giant 1 IT’S CLEAR TO ME THAT THE cryovolcanoes spotted on the mission made history. NASA’s piano-sized spacecraft ice sheets, pits, scarps, valleys and terrains seen surface of Pluto, indicates the nowhere else in the Solar System. SOLAR SYSTEM SAVED THE BEST dwarf planet was, and may flew within 7,800 miles of Pluto revealing a FOR LAST. WE COULD NOT HAVE still be, volcanically active. surprisingly complex, geologically active surface. D024518 6 West of Sputnik Planitia, EXPLORED A MORE FASCINATING scientists think ammonia-rich Scientists continue using New Horizons data to OR SCIENTIFICALLY IMPORTANT cryolava erupted and coated gain new insights about Pluto and Charon and to several thousand square PLANET AT THE EDGE OF OUR kilometers in red-colored understand other Kuiper Belt objects. SOLAR SYSTEM. organic molecules. — SwRI’s Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons COOL principal investigator D024524 D024525 D024525 DISCOVERIES D024529 Like Earth, Mars and a handful of moons, Pluto hosts active, flowing glaciers. This 50-mile 2 section of the Sputnik Planitia glacier isD024521 covered with thousands of pits and larger circular Pluto’s largest moon Charon also features surprising patterns on the nitrogen ice surface. geological features, indicating a geologically active past. An 7 immense southern plain the size of California gives way to rugged terrain to the north, likely the result of freezing and Chaos (FloatingWater expansion of an ancient ocean beneath Charon’s crust. Ejecta Basin Rim Ice Mountains) 8 3 Blanket Zoom in on the surface of Extensional Cellular Pluto’s winds explain the Tectonics Terrain Sputnik Planitia and you 9 thousands of dunes that will see a novel network of stretch 45 miles on the strange shapes churning western edge of Sputnik the surface of the glacier. Small craters that are Planitia. Dunes require Thick Water These six-mile polygons are common to most planets small particles and Ice-rich Crust Convecting are a rarity on Pluto. The Thin Water Volatile Ices evidence of Pluto’s internal sustained, driving winds Ice-rich Crust (N2, CH4, CO) heat trying to escape from dwarf planet features to lift and blow specks beneath the glacier, mostly large craters, of materials. Ocean indicating that the Kuiper Uplift creating bubbles of Liquid Water upwelling and down- Belt is home to few small Ocean 5 welling nitrogen ice. objects, the building Pluto’s climate cycles — called blocks for planets. its beating heart — control its D024526 atmosphere and climate. Silicate Core Enormous faults D024521 The nitrogen ices of Pluto’s stretch for hundreds D024528 Sputnik glacier cycle every day, of miles and cut Ejecta Cellular Terrain subliming from ice to vapor in roughly 2.5 miles Blanket N2 Rich Volatile Ices Chaos Basin Rim the sunlight, condensing back into the icy crust Extensional Glacial Flow A vast, liquid, water ocean may onto the surface during the frigid covering Pluto’s Tectonics be sloshing beneath Pluto’s night and circulating up to 20 surface. Pluto may surface. Models indicate that mile-per-hour nitrogen winds. have gotten those 10 the ocean may date back to the D024523 fissures by the rapid, violent formation of the gradual freezing of dwarf planet. an ocean beneath Water Ice 4 its surface. Ocean Uplift Crust D024527 TUTTLE KEANE NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/JAMES COURTESY IMAGE 18 FALL 2020 Liquid Water Ocean TECHNOLOGY TODAY 19 D024522 Silicate Core.

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