Pluto, our icy neighbor beyond the solar system just exhibited an insane
variability that shocked the entire space industry.
This new discovery changes everything that we knew about the
planet.
While Pluto was previously thought to be an icy dwarf planet with little to no
activity, scientists just discovered stunning images of features that had
never been seen before in our solar system when they explored the dwarf
planet.
What have we learned about this dwarf planet?
How do the discoveries affect Earth?
Could it be a hotbed of alien activity?
And why is it more than the cold, gloomy place we first believed it was?
Join us as we take a look at scientists' insane new discovery of Pluto.
Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006 after the International
Astronomical Union adopted a new definition for planets, and Pluto failed to
meet the requirements, much to the dismay of many.
Despite its diminutive size, Pluto packs a powerful punch.
It's smaller than our moon and less than half the width of the
United States.
Pluto's five moons, the largest of which is Charon, are
so comparable in size that they orbit each other like a double planet system.
As a result of its July 2015 flyby of Pluto and its moons, NASA's New Horizons
spacecraft has changed the way scientists think about Pluto forever.
The mission's data continues to aid researchers
in their quest to learn more about the dwarf planet and the icy objects
that circle it near the edge of our solar system.
The dwarf planet lies in the Kuiper Belt, on the outskirts of our solar system,
and is the largest of the many frozen objects orbiting distant from the sun.
Mountains, valleys, glaciers, plains, and craters abound in the frigid globe,
which has an average temperature of negative 387 degrees Fahrenheit
(negative 232 degrees Celsius).
Standing on the surface, you'd witness a panorama reminiscent of the Rocky Mountains,
with blue skies and scarlet snow.
A recent photo analysis revealed a rough patch on Pluto that is unlike
anything else on the small world — or in our cosmic vicinity.
This lumpy region is home to a smattering of unusually enormous ice
volcanoes unlike anything else we've ever seen in the solar system.
The location is southwest of the Sputnik Planitia ice sheet, covering 621
miles (1,000-kilometers) of the ancient impact basin.
It mostly consists of lumpy water ice and is covered in volcanic
domes.
Wright Mons and Piccard Mons are two of the largest.
Piccard Mons is around 22,965 feet (7 kilometers) high and 139 miles (225
kilometers) wide, whereas Wright Mons is roughly 13,123 to 16,404 feet (4 to
5 kilometers) tall and spans 93 miles (150 kilometers).
The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii is one of the largest volcanoes on Earth,
and Wright Mons is thought to be comparable in size.
Some of the domes seen in the photos combine to form even larger
mountains.
But what may have caused them to exist?
It all boils down to ice volcanoes.
Ice volcanoes have been discovered in other parts of the solar system.
They produce a new landscape by moving material
from the subsurface to the surface.
When the water reached the freezing temperatures of Pluto's
surface, it swiftly turned to ice.
Pluto's snow-covered mountains look like they belong on Earth, but they are,
in fact, completely different from our own planet.
It's hard to compare the appearance of these features to any other
volcanoes in the solar system, be it icy or rocky.
They started out as mountains, but there is no caldera at the
top, and they are covered in big bumps.
For decades, scientists believed that Pluto's stony core lacked the internal
energy necessary to stoke volcanoes.
They believed that several eruptions would have been required to form the area.
Additionally, the lack of impact craters in the area, which can be observed
across Pluto's surface, shows that the ice volcanoes were active very
recently and that Pluto's interior has more residual heat than expected.
This indicates that Pluto has more interior heat
than we expected, implying that our understanding of planetary systems is
incomplete.
As far as geological time scales go, the ice volcanoes may have been active
as recently as 100 million or 200 million years ago.
Observing Pluto's Ice Volcano would be an experience unlike anything you've
ever seen before.
On this dwarf planet, instead of erupting gasses and molten rock, the
cryovolcanoes on this dwarf planet expel massive amounts of ice, most likely
frozen water.
While flowing out of its volcanic vent onto Pluto's surface, the frozen material
would most likely be a slushy mix of ice and water or more like toothpaste.
The explanation for this is that liquid water cannot last long on Pluto's
surface due to its extreme temperature.
In any event, the flow of material created the gigantic domes that we see today
and the bumpy topography that can be observed across this region.
The team aboard New Horizons was only able to observe the region for about
a day as it flew over this region; therefore, they were unable to observe any
present ice volcano activity.
In theory, the ice volcanoes could still be active
at this time.
They could be like Earth's dormant volcanoes, which become
active again after a period of inactivity.
In addition, some scientists believe that Pluto has a liquid ocean beneath its
ice cover that is around 249 miles thick.
According to this theory, Pluto's moon Charon developed later in the dwarf planet's
existence as radioactive materials decayed near the rocky core.
A subsurface ocean could have formed as a result of this heat.
Contrary to popular belief, however, the data from New Horizons suggests
otherwise.
According to new research based on that data, Pluto may have
been formed in a heated formation scenario.
Those extensional fractures detected by New Horizons in Pluto's ice surface
could be caused by the gradual freezing of the liquid ocean over
time.
These ice volcanoes may indicate that Pluto's once-prominent subsurface
ocean is still present and that liquid water may be present within a short
distance of the planet's surface.
In conjunction with previous findings of Pluto's interior being warmer than previously
thought, these new findings raise intriguing questions about Pluto's potential
habitability.
However, other scientists claim that any organism attempting to thrive there
will face numerous difficulties.
Even if the volcanism is episodic and hence the availability of heat and water is intermittent,
life would still require a constant source of nutrients.
Sending an orbiter to Pluto to investigate its fascinating subsurface would be
necessary.
We may utilize ice-penetrating radar on a future expedition to see
directly inside Pluto and observe what the volcanic plumbing looks like.
New Horizons also revealed the unusual mechanics of Pluto's "beating"
heart-shaped glacier, which is about the size of Texas and even helps
generate the planet's wind.
The heart-shaped feature is known as Tombaugh Regio, named after Clyde
Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.
Nitrogen ice dominates this part of the dwarf planet, which is home to the
deep basin known as Sputnik Planitia due to its elevation of 1.9 miles below
the planet's surface.
The basin is the "left lobe" of the heart, with nitrogen
glaciers and highlands on the right side.
Pluto's frozen nitrogen core thaws enough to turn into vapor throughout the
day.
It begins to freeze over again at night.
Scientists refer to this as Pluto's "heartbeat," which regulates nitrogen wind
circulation in the planet's atmosphere.
The wind is created when Pluto's frozen heart beats.
Because expansion would occur throughout Pluto's history, this protracted,
progressive freeze of the subterranean ocean could also explain the variety
of characteristics on the dwarf planet's surface.
Pock-marked surfaces were also found on Pluto and Charon in photos taken
by New Horizons.
Large craters dot the landscape.
It appears from the craters that Pluto and Charon were struck by small
Kuiper Belt objects less than 100 kilometers in size.
The fact that no impact craters smaller than 13 kilometers in diameter
were identified suggests that there are fewer Kuiper Belt objects smaller
than 2 kilometers than astronomers had projected, based on what scientists
know about impact crater formation.
This lends credence to the theory that Kuiper Belt objects may not be chunks
of space rock generated by collisions but rather unbroken "leftovers" from
the formation of the solar system billions of years ago.
Also, the dunes on Pluto are only one of the planet's many surprises.
On Pluto, the dunes are not composed of sand
like that of Earth but of solid methane ice grains that are molded by the
wind.
Dunes are more common than you might expect in our solar system.
They exist solely on Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn's moon Titan, and Comet 67P.
Due to the fact that these dunes are mostly undisturbed on Pluto's frozen
crust, it is likely that they were produced within the last 500,000 years or
perhaps less recently.
Pluto creates an age-old dilemma in this way.
Polygonal shapes and features on the dwarf planet's surface indicate that it
is a young and active geological system.
The surface is only a few thousand years old, despite the dwarf planet's 4.5
billion-year-old age overall.
A thermal, convective overturning of the ice
is most likely the cause of this action.
These are only a few of the discoveries made possible by New Horizons data,
and more will be found in the future as scientists sort through the massive
amount of data collected during the flyby.
These are just a few of the discoveries of Pluto.
More discoveries will be uncovered in the future as scientists examine
the dwarf planet.
Let's know what you think of the dwarf planet discoveries in the comments
section below.