A batch of dome-shaped ice volcanoes that look unlike anything else known in our solar system and might still be active have been identified on Pluto using data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, showing that the remote, frigid world is more dynamic than previously known.
Scientists on Tuesday said that the cryovolcanoes — which number perhaps 10 or more — are from 1km to 7km tall.
Unlike volcanoes on Earth that spew gases and molten rock, the dwarf planet’s cryovolcanoes extrude large amounts of ice, apparently frozen water rather than some other frozen material, that might have the consistency of toothpaste, they said.
Photo: AFP / NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Isaac Herrera / Kelsi Singer
Features on the dwarf planet Ceres, Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan, Jupiter’s moon Europa and Neptune’s moon Triton also have been pegged as cryovolcanoes.
However, those differ from Pluto’s, owing to different surface conditions such as temperature and atmospheric pressure, as well as different mixes of icy materials, the researchers said.
“Finding these features does indicate that Pluto is more active, or geologically alive, than we previously thought it would be,” said planetary scientist Kelsi Singer of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
“The combination of these features being geologically recent, covering a vast area and most likely being made of water ice is surprising because it requires more internal heat than we thought Pluto would have at this stage of its history,” Singer said.
Pluto, which is smaller than Earth’s moon and has a diameter of about 2,380km, orbits about 5.8 billion kilometers from the sun, about 40 times farther than Earth’s orbit. Its surface features plains, mountains, craters and valleys.
Images and data analyzed obtained in 2015 by New Horizons that are in the new study validated previous hypotheses about cryovolcanism on Pluto.
The study found not only extensive evidence for cryovolcanism, but also that it has been long-lived, not a single episode, said Southwest Research Institute planetary scientist Alan Stern, the New Horizons principal investigator and study coauthor.
“What’s most fascinating about Pluto is that it’s so complex — as complex as the Earth or Mars, despite its smaller size and high distance from the sun,” Stern said. “This was a real surprise from the New Horizons flyby, and the new result about cryovolcanism re-emphasizes this in a dramatic way.”
The researchers analyzed an area southwest of Sputnik Planitia, Pluto’s large heart-shaped basin filled with nitrogen ice. They found large domes 30km to 100km across, sometimes combining to form more complex shaped structures.
An elevation called Wright Mons, one of the tallest, might have formed from several volcanic domes merging, yielding a shape unlike any Earth volcanoes.
Although shaped differently, it is similar in size to Hawaii’s Mauna Loa.
Based on an absence of impact craters, it appears the cryovolcanoes on Pluto are relatively recent.
“It is possible these processes are ongoing even in the present day,” Singer said.
Pluto has a lot of active geology, including flowing nitrogen ice glaciers and a cycle in which nitrogen ice vaporizes during the day and condenses back to ice at night — a process that constantly changes its surface.
“Pluto is a geological wonderland,” Singer said.
“Many areas of Pluto are completely different from each other. If you just had a few pieces of a puzzle of Pluto you would have no idea what the other areas looked like,” she said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS