the landscape revealed by NASA's New Horizons probe when it flew by Pluto in 2015 was
considerably more active than anyone could have anticipated the dwarf planet is home to massive
methane ice chunks that reach skyscraper Heights as well as icy nitrogen Cliffs that resemble the
rough Norwegian Coast on the surface these are fissures deeper than the Grand Canyon
and Frozen volcanoes that are higher than Mount Everest the spacecraft's cameras photographed a
massive feature in the form of a heart-shaped heart in one area of the far-off orb sending
countless followers on earth into a collective swoon and just recently the SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
just reacted to the James Webb Space telescope's first images of the dark side of Pluto is there
life lurking on the dark side of this dwarf planet let's find out in today's episode
hello everyone welcome back to Elon Musk Evolution where we bring you the most recent news about
Elon Musk and his multi-billion dollar companies space news and the latest science and technology
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any of our amazing videos the James Webb Telescope spent hours viewing Pluto and its Moon Charon in
September 2022. nurse spec ifu spectroscopy was utilized by the James Webb Telescope to collect
data about Pluto and its biggest moon Charon James Christie and Robert Harrington made their
discovery of Charon the largest of Pluto's five moons on June 22 1978 at the U.S Naval Observatory
in Flagstaff Arizona the two are referred to as a twin dwarf planet System since Charon is about
half the size of Pluto and they are separated by a distance of 12 200 miles 6.4 days on Earth are
needed for Charon to orbit Pluto because Charon and Pluto are in title lock Charon never Rises
or sets but rather always appears in the same location on Pluto's surface with its same side
constantly facing Pluto Charon lacks an atmosphere similar to Earth's Moon although its neighboring
planet Pluto does the existence of a little atmosphere around Charon has been the subject of
conjecture but this has not yet been demonstrated we expect to learn more about Pluto's and charon's
atmospheres as a result of the James Webb Telescope collecting data on these bodies since
it is thought that Charon was created through a collision this would also rule out any cooling
phase that may have caused the surrounding gases to condense into a solid atmosphere according to
Hubble measurements Charon is more blue than Pluto indicating that the surface structures
and composition of the two planets are different Pluto may have a layer of surface that reflects
light smoothly according to further measurements a bright region parallel to the equator on Pluto
may exist according to a thorough analysis of the Hubble photograph even though Pluto was found in
1930 Charon wasn't spotted until 1978 because the Moon is so close to Pluto that when observed via
ground-based telescopes the two objects appear to be one Earth's Moon would appear in the night sky
as large as an apple held at arm's length at a similar distance new images and data will soon
be made available to the public as a result of the observations made by the James Webb Telescope
about Pluto and Charon following the conclusion of the peer review data and photographs are normally
made public a few months following the observation the James Webb Telescope is now observing among
other things High redshift galaxies the asteroid sedna and NCG 104 in addition to Pluto and Charon
meanwhile as previously mentioned NASA's New Horizons is the only spacecraft to have visited
and investigated Pluto up close which occurred on July 14 2015 and uncovered a much more complicated
world than previously thought it captured images of Air Haze and remarkably smooth surface features
such as Sputnik planitia which suggests recent and maybe active geologic activity however in
what other ways as New Horizons Advanced our knowledge of Pluto's potential habitability
Leslie young a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder
Colorado and a deputy project scientist on The New Horizons Mission says I expected Pluto to
be a scientific Wonderland but it did not have to be that gorgeous even though the initial stunning
Glimpse was obtained by scientists over eight years ago they are still viewing photographs
of the planet for the first time only one side of Pluto the hemisphere that the sun was then
Illuminating was able to be seen up close by New Horizons since it was traveling at a speed of 52
000 kilometers per hour when it arrived at the dwarf planet the other was momentarily
hidden by Darkness scientists are starting to examine the other half which the spacecraft
photographed days before it flew past now that they have seen those near side close-ups that
hemisphere is referred to by scientists as the far side or even the dark side the photographs
show topography with resolutions ranging from 2 to 30 kilometers however they are not as clear as
those obtained subsequently in which features as small as a approximately 75 meters may be
seen in comparison to images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that is at most 250 times better
Harold Weaver a planetary scientist at Baltimore Maryland's Johns Hopkins University and a member
of the New Horizons research team adds it's still really juicy data to look at and it's
the best we'll have for another 30 to 40 years he added however with the web space telescope's
successful launch we are now anticipating more sharp photographs of the dwarf planet
scientists now have a new perspective on this Dynamic world with hundreds of images to analyze
this New Perspective helps them better understand the murky details of how it Formed whether an
ocean Lies Beneath its icy crust and the intricate processes by which substances freeze out of the
atmosphere and shape the planet's surface even the possibility that The Frigid world might be
suitable for life is supported by the findings but there are some mysteries in the photographs for
instance ice fragments that were once visible on Pluto's near side are now visible to be circling
the planet one of the greatest mysteries on the dwarf planet as a result is how they came to be
Richard binzel a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge
and a co-investigator on the New Horizons Mission claims that Pluto is the gift that keeps on giving
Pluto was a tiny Speck of light that could hardly be seen by the greatest ground-based telescopes
when it was discovered 90 years ago by Clyde tombow a teenage astronomer at Lowell Observatory
in Flagstaff Arizona it wasn't until 1988 that a fortunate alignment provided scientists a break
when Pluto just so happened to pass in front of a far away star scientists were able to separate the
molecules in Pluto's atmosphere such as nitrogen carbon monoxide and methane as the sunlight
passed through Pluto's atmosphere the Hubble Space Telescope then enabled researchers to see surface
details at a resolution of 500 kilometers in 1996. the photos however hazy showed a globe that had
more large-scale contrast than any other planet in the solar system saved from Earth at the time it
was still classified as a planet in July 2015 New Horizons notably discovered a heart-shaped feature
just north of the nearsides equator confirming the tantalizing notion that Pluto might be a dynamic
world Sputnik plenisha an ice Basin filled with enormous glaciers and located within
the heart's left ventricle is now known to have a remarkable impact on Pluto's activity a pulse of
ice sublimates into vapor as Sunshine warms the Frozen plain wafting upward till day's end when
it descends once more Pluto may have even been turned over by the heart Francis Nimo a planetary
scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz and his colleagues quickly noticed that
Sputnik planisha was in an odd position since it is situated almost directly opposite To Pluto's
largest moon Charon shortly after the first photographs of the near side reached Earth
although there is a five percent chance that it was an accident it might have been models
instead predict that a subsurface ocean started to rise into the rift as the Basin formed following
that nitrogen gas from Pluto's atmosphere froze and condensed in the Chile Basin Pluto's current
alignment was brought about by a tremendous load that was generated by the additional water and ice
although the concept of a deep ocean has long existed the photos from The Far Side have
strengthened it chaotic terrain which is located on the exact opposite side of Pluto from Sputnik
planisha and is characterized by a jumbled mass of ridges fractures and planes provides some of the
strongest evidence such pairs had previously been observed by scientists on Mars Mercury and Europa
one of Jupiter's moons where they suspect that a collision with an asteroid or a comet sent seismic
waves racing through and around the body these earthquakes tore up the surface in ways similar
to what can be seen on Pluto's Far Side once they merged on the opposite Horizon a Dean Denton a PhD
student in planetary geology at Purdue University in West Lafayette Indiana created a simulation of
how an asteroid impact might cause shockwaves to travel over the dwarf planet to examine the
origins of this chaotic terrain the research which was virtually presented at the lunar and planetary
science conference in March confirms that such a collision would have produced the topography
however with a condition it would only have been feasible if Pluto had a subsurface ocean of liquid
water that was 150 kilometers thick Oliver white a planetary scientist at The seti Institute in
Mountain View California who created a geologic map on the far side though was not part of the
study claims that while the feature does appear to be similar to others seen in the solar system the
image's resolution is low they concur as do other scientists William McKinnon a planetary scientist
at Washington University in St Louis Missouri and Deputy leader of the New Horizons geology
team asserts that we won't truly know until we return to the area at some point Bluto does
however exhibit several geological peculiarities most notably a vast number of fissures found on
the far side which suggests the possibility of a buried ocean and even provide insight into how
it developed long believed to have had a cold start meaning that it was frozen when the dwarf
planet formed according to scientists who have postulated about Pluto's ocean it would have
eventually melted due to the heat produced by the radioactive elements decaying inside of its
Rocky core according to Nimo in this case the ice would have shrunk as it melted causing ripples to
develop on the surface that resemble the wrinkling that an apple experiences after being refrigerated
when the ice refroze it would have grown as it did so causing surface fractures images of Pluto's
surface should show both earlier and more recent cracks increases if this scenario is accurate the
ocean of the dwarf planet may have started out as a liquid and partially frozen over time but New
Horizons only captured cracks in the ocean images of Pluto's Far Side in particular show that its
nearsight is home to a massive crack that runs its length as it wraps around the entire dwarf
planet 1 it now appears to cross the North Pole and return to the South Pole on the other side
similar to the east African Rift system which is dividing that continent in two it occurs along
a rift valley in contrast to the one on earth Pluto's Rift is most likely a scar left by the
icy constantly expanding ocean rather than a sign of changing continents Nimo claims that given the
age of the Fisher it is obvious that the liquid ocean started to cool right away if this were
the case life might even be ready to flourish in the water water that had likely rushed out of the
ocean on the near side has been observed and it is red suggesting that it is stained with organic
molecules despite the fact that it might appear Impossible on a world like Pluto laboratory tests
have demonstrated the ability of radiation such as solar wind or cosmic rays to produce complex
organic matter that is reddish brown and it is feasible to create molecules that are essential
for life such as the bases found in RNA and DNA if ammonia is present therefore when Dale Crookshank
and his colleagues reported in the journal astrobiology last year that Pluto's nearsight
ices were both red and laced with ammonia it was a crucial indication that the orb might
be brimming with organic molecules Crookshank is a planetary scientist at the NASA Ames Research
Center in Moffett Field California and the deputy lead on the New Horizons composition team
Crookshank claims that the widely accepted idea among planetary scientists does not imply
that life originated on Pluto but rather suggests that it could survive there if it were introduced
planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and Deputy project scientist on the
mission Kathy olken says before New Horizons got to Pluto I would have never in a million years
expected that there would be an article about Pluto in astrobiology results from The Far Side
support this notion they show an equator spanning Crimson ban most likely made of organic material
which corresponds to a region with the highest sunlight and the mildest climate Alan Stern a
planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and the missions Chief investigator
argues that astrobiologists generally agree that life requires liquid water organic materials and
an energy source the case for liquid water is strong and growing we now have evidence in favor
of Organics that means that two of the three boxes have been checked which is a huge step forward
the observations from Pluto's Far Side have led to a number of Riddles In addition to aiding in
the investigation of Pluto's potential for life when the first photographs from New
Horizons reached earth scientists saw a strange topography consisting of skyscraper-sized ice
shards throughout the easternmost part of the near side despite being only a few miles apart
these uniformly spaced ridges rise sharply and knife-like into the sky occasionally reaching up
to one kilometer which is around three times the height of New York City's Empire State Building
they may extend for up to 30 kilometers white claims that attempting to navigate through this
area would be terrifying however they were only visible as a blip on the map before researchers
got a site of the other side even though the most recent map is fuzzy with a resolution too
low to actually discern the individual ridges itself it is evident that the bladed topography
sweeps around the entire far side and reappears on the western edge of the nearsight in an area
that was previously ignored one of Pluto's greatest Mysteries they are spread across an
area that is 3.5 times greater on the far side than it is on the near side as Stern explains
it became much more important to understand this terrain type instead of being kind of an
interesting exotic footnote when we learned how common this form of terrain is the the blades
at least on plateaus and mountains form a belt around the equator and are made of methane ice
according to spectral data but it's still unclear how they came to be methane may have froze out of
the atmosphere in a similar manner to how Frost freezes on Earth's surface they could also be the
remains of a previous coating of methane ice that was destroyed by the harsh sunlight the fact that
the ridges are sharp and mimic formations that occur in the high Andes albeit on a drastically
smaller size has led some Scholars to concentrate on the latter interpretation the penitence of
South America which only grow to a height of a few meters develop at high elevations the
creation of the penitence is thought to be aided by light since they are inclined towards the Sun
and grow towards the equator where solar radiation is at its highest the process of sublimation which
essentially sculpts troughs between ridges that resemble razors is assumed to be fueled
by sunlight NASA Ames Research Center planetary scientist and New Horizons co-investigator Jeffrey
Moore and his colleagues proposed a similar proposal for the characteristics on Pluto in
2017. co-author tangai Bertrand who is likewise at the NASA Ames Research Center contends that it
is challenging to apply that method to describe all of the peculiarities of the blades despite
the fact that some are oriented in the predicted north-south Direction which is consistent with the
sun's passage across Pluto Sky others are oriented in the Northeast Southwest or East-West directions
that may counter the claim that Sunshine causes erosion Bertrand counters that since there isn't
a sharp Frost the alternative possibility methane precipitation also has issues the icy shards and
pluto surface in general cannot be comprehended without carefully examining the dwarf planet's
weather that much is evident the Sputnik penisha Basin is rich in nitrogen ice but the bladed
terrain is dominated by methane ice according to a climate model released just last year by Bertrand
and his colleagues this model explains why the Sputnik blenicia Basin is rich in nitrogen ice
and the bladed terrain is dominated by methane ice this contrasts with Earth where the highest
mountain peaks are covered with water ice while the low-lying oceans are filled with liquid water
in our world wind has the ability to move up slope carrying water from low to high altitudes such a
maneuver however is impossible on Pluto downslope winds are predominant due to its atmosphere being
warmer than the surface which prevents low-lying nitrogen from ascending the highest peaks and
prevents high-flying methane from reaching the lower portions of the surface before condensing
on the tallest mountains the bladed ridges appear to be old feature that have developed over a long
period of time in addition aside from the fact that it would take tens of millions of years for
ice to either condense or Sublime into such tall features their placement varies widely across
the latitude Spectrum the movement and perhaps formation of the bladed landscape may have been
caused by changes in the previous climate but there are still many questions to be answered
Pluto's eccentric seasons are one of them instead of being influenced by the planet's orbital path
the seasonal cycle on Earth is determined by variations in the amount of direct sunlight
as one hemisphere of our globe tilts towards or away from the Sun the elliptical orbit of Pluto
which fluctuates as the dwarf planet swings once a year towards the icy limits of the outer solar
system before soaring back in toward the Sun and practically halving its distance from it
controls the seasons on Pluto Pluto's tilt also affects the seasons super season will
occur in that hemisphere once every nine hundred thousand years when Pluto will approach the Sun
and that hemisphere will be facing the sun due to changes in both of those factors this will
happen once every nine hundred thousand years and that ends today's episode please subscribe
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