New Horizons spots possible ice volcanoes on Pluto

[Eugene]

Source: CBS News

By WILLIAM HARWOOD CBS NEWS November 9, 2015, 4:20 PM

New Horizons spots possible ice volcanoes on Pluto

Topographic maps of the hemisphere of Pluto facing the New Horizons probe as it raced past the dwarf planet in July show two mountains, each more than 100 miles across and several miles high, that could be towering ice volcanoes, the first such structures seen in the outer solar system, researchers said Monday.

Speaking at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, Oliver White, a New Horizons team member at NASA's Ames Research Center, said the two mountains in question may have been formed by other means, "but I'm having difficulty unseeing volcanoes."

"As someone who did his Ph.D. on volcanic morphology, when you see a big mountain with a hole in the top it generally points to one thing," he said. "While it's crazy, it's still the least crazy idea we can think of."

Said Alan Stern, the New Horizons principal investigator: "All the way across all the worlds of the middle solar system we've seen nothing like this. It's truly amazing. It's like something on a terrestrial planet."

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Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-horizons-spots-possible-ice-volcanoes-on-pluto/



A false-color image of Wright Mons, a presumed ice volcano on Pluto, with blues representing lower elevations and browns, higher.

[mindwalker_i]

1. Many years ago I read a sicience fiction story with life on Pluto

It was made of verl cold chemicals that moves slowly, and they were sensitive to heat, like, more that 50 Kelvins. The idea behind it was that even in such a cold environment, there would be chemical processes that would lead to life, although because of the cold, it would happen a lot more slowly than it does on a hot planet. It's looking like there may have been at least something to the idea since we're seeing similar geologic processes on Pluto - it's not life, but the planet itself isn't as dead as we thought it would be by a long shot. I think the story was written by George R R Martin before he switched to fantasy (game of thrones).

[longship]

2. Absolutely awesome! R&K nt

[Punx]

3. It's not an ice volcano

It's home for one of these!

[PosterChild]

4. Go Atlas! Go Centaur! Go New Horizons ! nt

[packman]

5. Looks like a zit

Yuck-

[Thor_MN]

6. Why would it be crazy? At those temps, water is a mineral.

I see no reason that water would not behave like magma/lava if there is/was internal heat to drive a volcanic process.

[Panich52]

7. Near-sunset view of Sputnik Planum, Norgay Montes and Hillary Montes.

Pluto might have ice volcanoes | Science Wire | @earthskyscience

http://earthsky.org/space/pluto-might-have-ice-volcanoes#.VkT5ubQtR7k.twitter @NASA



On July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 230 miles (380 kilometers) across. | Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)