Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Space Astronomy

Jaw-dropping high-res images of Pluto show a sea of nitrogen

Dragos Mitrica by Dragos Mitrica
January 11, 2016
in Astronomy, Remote sensing
Pluto’s ‘Viking area’ put in context – The new composite image shows features as small as 1,600 feet (480 meters) across. Image via NASA.

The New Horizons shuttle has finished its Pluto flyby months ago, but NASA is continuing to receive breathtaking photos from it. The latest additions paint a ‘lava lamp’ surface on Pluto’s surface, likely a sea of nitrogen close to Pluto’s Sputnik Planum.

Astronomers knew that Sputnik Planum was an icy plain, irregular and segmented by massive troughs, but now they get to see it in unprecedented detail, and so do we. The dark red spots are thought to be aggregations of tholin (molecules formed by solar ultraviolet irradiation of simple organic compounds such as methane or ethane), while the bright white rims are probably methane ice.

A close up of the same area. Image via NASA.
A detail from the Sputnik Planum showing dirty water “icebergs” floating in the denser nitrogen. Image via NASA.

Thick thiolin deposits aren’t really mobile, but they seem to have drifted, which could indicate that they moved on the icy surface, perhaps aided by Pluto’s winds. Whatever the reality may be, it’s another indication that the tiny Pluto is a complex systems where many geological phenomena interact.

ADVERTISEMENT

As for the Sputnik Planum, astronomers believe it could be a large impact basin that could harbor massive quantities of nirtogen ice.

Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

“This part of Pluto is acting like a lava lamp, if you can imagine a lava lamp as wide as, and even deeper than, the Hudson Bay,” William McKinnon, New Horizons scientist said in a statement.

The first two images are actually composite images, combining data from two devices and times: New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken at a distance of around 31,000 miles (49,000 kilometers), and enhanced color data from the probe’s Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (taken 20 minutes later, when the spacecraft was at a range of around 21,000 miles).

If that still doesn’t convince you, how about this monumental picture of Pluto’s pits, likely caused by the sublimation of the nitrogen gas?

ADVERTISEMENT
Image via NASA.

Dragos Mitrica

Dragos Mitrica

Dragos has been working in geology for six years, and loving every minute of it. Now, his more recent focus is on paleoclimate and climatic evolution, though in his spare time, he also dedicates a lot of time to chaos theory and complex systems.

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.