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In the previous episode, physicist Eugene Bagashov began his four-part presentation
on the latest discoveries from NASA's New Horizons mission to the dwarf planet Pluto.
The mission is one of many recent opportunities to test the predictions
of the standard story of our solar system's history and origins.
In this story, called the Nebular Hypothesis,
the solar system formed through gravitational collapse in a cloud of gas and dust.
Proponents of this theory proposed that water ice
was a primary building block for Pluto and its moons.
But countless discoveries in recent years have proved highly problematic
for the standard theory of our solar system's formation and history.
Today, Eugene Bagashov explores the question of Pluto's composition and origins
and contrast the predictions of the standard theory
versus those of the Electric Universe.
Eugene Bagashov: It is interesting that,
while describing the Pluto and Charon geological features,
the New Horizons' mission scientists have often referred to the "water-ice bedrock."
Indeed, it seems they consider the water ice is a primary building block
for both of those bodies and probably the smaller satellites, too,
which to me seemed quite unusual.
As far as I understood, the only reason for such an assumption
is the Nebular Hypothesis of planetary formation,
plus maybe a few other popular theories,
which in their interpretation doesn't allow anything else to be present
in those faraway regions of the solar system.
It is then supposed that water-ice might be as strong as rock in these harsh conditions
and is capable of maintaining form long enough to allow for the existence
of these high mountains and deep valleys that we see on Pluto and Charon.
Well that might be the case, who knows.
But why wouldn't we just suppose that it is just made of regular rock?
I'd like to reiterate the thought from previous video
that if Pluto was formed in some other conditions,
for example being a moon of a giant planet
or simply being closer to the Sun or maybe some other star,
then it might have different properties
and represent something different than what is expected.
One of the possible points in favor of big water-ice abundance
on Pluto and Charon is their density,
which is around 1.8 g/cm³ or roughly twice the water-ice's density.
This is two to three times smaller than the density of terrestrial planets
and comparable to the density of the other well studied dwarf planet Ceres.
It is supposed to mean there's less rock
and heavier things like metals and more ice inside.
But we know that in our system there are other bodies made of rock
that also exhibit quite a low bulk density, comets for example.
Philae lander data has shown that it's the internal structure,
namely the porosity of the material that makes the Comet 67P so light,
not the high ice content.
Basically, it's something like pumice,
and it completely agrees with the results of previous missions to comets,
such as Stardust, that have shown that the comet nuclei exhibit materials
that are formed in high temperature conditions.
Same thing might be applicable to Pluto.
In fact, the surface of Pluto shows only local patches of water-ice spectral signature
but the surface of Charon has shown signs of it almost everywhere.
I think this ice that we see on Charon might actually be only a thin veneer
that was created under the influence of solar wind
when its protons have joined with the oxygen atoms
taken from the surface rocks, or maybe regolith,
as it's supposed in the Electric Comet Hypothesis popular in the EU community.
On Pluto such process might be somewhat damped
because of the presence of its atmosphere and also other contaminants so to speak,
by which I mean nitrogen, CO, CH4 ices
and also more complex organic molecules, the so-called tholins.
All of those substances might mask the water-ice layer
on the surface of Pluto, if there is any.
Now that I've mentioned tholins, let's look at what that is.
They are the complex hydrocarbons that are supposed to be produced
in the atmosphere of Pluto under the influence of solar radiation
from more simple molecules, such as methane and nitrogen.
Tholins have quite a distinct brownish red color
that is readily recognized on the surface of Pluto.
Basically all the surface of the planet is slightly red
and supposed to bare some tholin layering.
But aside of that, we might see a very distinct dark equatorial band
which supposedly has a very rich tholin abundance.
It might be that the equatorial position makes it easier
for those materials to be formed under the more pronounced insolation,
and I'd like to mention the very specific contrast of this equatorial band
with bright Tombaugh Regio, also situated on the equator.
As I've mentioned in the previous part of this review,
such a prominent anomaly probably should have a very special origins.
What also caught my eye, concerning this equatorial band and the map of Pluto in general,
is its striking similarity with the map of Saturn's moon Titan.
It is interesting that not only does this body have the similar nitrogen atmosphere
but it also exhibits the rich tholin abundance
and other hydrocarbons right in this dark band.
Maybe there're organic molecules on Pluto and Titan
and, who knows, maybe even Earth shares similar origins.
We also have a nitrogen atmosphere of all of other things.
And from the Electric Universe perspective, it is important to notice that scientists,
who were trying to recreate Titan like tholins in the laboratory,
have actually succeeded in this endeavor by using electric discharges.
Could it be that the atmosphere of Pluto as well as Titan
is filled with electrical activity today, giving rise to those substances?
Or maybe it is a sign of such an activity in the past?
Let us look again at the encounter hemispheres of Pluto and Charon.
Those are available in fairly good resolution
and allow us to see a significant amount of very sharp valleys or rills,
especially in the left side of Pluto image
and almost throughout the whole visible part of Charon.
In fact, earlier images of Charon's other side
have shown that these channels almost encircle the whole body.
Of course, we know this line of reasoning.
When people see dendritic channel figures on Mars for example,
they might say that they were created by flowing water,
though the current atmosphere cannot support it.
Maybe the atmosphere was a bit thicker before,
and so water could exist in large amounts in liquid state etc etc.
But what did they say when they see dendritic channels on Pluto and Charon?
What are the reasonable alternatives
for electric excavation and deposition we have here?
It seems that, at this point, the only plausible explanation
that New Horizons Team have come up with is plate tectonics.
So, as far as I understand, it is thought that those valleys
might represent some sort of cracks in the outer shells of those bodies.
I'm not a specialist in EDM so I probably cannot comment on this much.
But I just hope that one day we're going to get images of those regions
with better resolution and that would start a discussion on their possible electric origin.
Stay tuned for Part 3
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