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2141 - What would you like to learn about the Planet
Pluto? Whoops, the Dwarf Planet
Pluto? The New Horizon spacecraft has
brought a treasure trove full of surprises.
Its moon Charon and Pluto have been rich in scientific discoveries.
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---------------------------------- 2141
- Pluto
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- As unexpected as possible. Pluto is likely to
have subsurface liquid oceans. Could
that mean that other Kuiper Belt objects and other Dwarf Planets, like Sedna, could
have subsurface oceans? If life is
likely to exist elsewhere it is these liquid oceans that could likely sustain
it.
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- Pluto's oceans may be laden with
ammonia. Ammonia is a type of
antifreeze. It could keep the oceans
slushy and syrupy. The Horizon flyby on
July 2015 mapped a possible subsurface ocean that was 600 miles wide and more
than 50 miles deep.
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- Could there be some novel form of life living
in the noxious, cold, salty, ammonia rich ocean beneath the surface? We have learned that even here on Earth life
can tolerate extreme salt, extreme cold, extreme heat, and what else we can
imagine?.
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- Ammonia in water can chill down to -145F and
still remain liquid. It would be like
chilled pancake syrup.
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- Pluto's spin axis is swung over by 120
degrees with respect to its orbital plane.
Whatever knocked it sideways spewed enough rubble to form the moon,
Charon, and four other smaller moons. The
other four small moons are, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.
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- Pluto's plateau region (Sputnik Planum) was formed by a head on
collision with an object 125 miles diameter.
The collision created a slushy liquid ocean and tilted the planet 120
degrees. This region goes through
consistent cycles of sublimation and refreezing due to being tidally locked
with Charon. The same face facing Charon
at all times in its 3 day cycle.
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- Charon has a surface that is duller, grayer,
and has a exterior of water ice. In
contrast, Pluto is bright, tinged with orange color, and blanketed with nitrogen
and methane on its surface.
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- Pluto is 3 billion miles from the Sun
allowing temperatures to reach -393F. The
mountains on Pluto are rock-solid water ice.
The plains are frozen nitrogen, methane (CH4), and carbon monoxide
(CO).
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- Pluto's gravity is 1/15th that of Earth's
gravity. Its atmosphere is mostly
nitrogen gas. In the sun-warmed dark
expanses temperatures only rise up to -369F.
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- Rock makes up 75% of Pluto's diameter and 67%
of its mass. This rock could be
releasing heat through radioactive decay.
Frozen nitrogen melts at -346F.
This amount of convection heat could renew Pluto's surface every one
million years. This could explain why
there are no craters in the plains.
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Pluto's mountains tower 15,000 feet. Its surface of nitrogen is likely a thin veneer
over a water ice crust. The ice flows and avalanches replenish the surface
removing craters. The younger surfaces are
only 30 million years old.
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- Pluto's surface reflectivity ranges from 8% ,
nearly black, to nearly 100%, nearly white.
To get its yellow, reddish, and brownish black colors the dim solar
ultraviolet radiation must have transformed the surface ices into long-chain
hydrocarbons.
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- Radioactive elements in the core, along with
some motion tug-of-war between Pluto and Charon could be keeping the oceans
liquid. Pluto's average temperature is -380F.
This freezes liquid nitrogen and liquid methane that is on the surface. The atmosphere literally freezes and falls
from the sky. A strange snowfall.
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- Pluto is tilted 120 degrees. The Earth is tilted 27 degrees. Pluto has a 248 year orbit. The Earth has a 1 year orbit.
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- Due to the low gravity on Pluto the
atmosphere would lose 10^27 molecules per second into outer space. This amounts to a few thousand tons per
day.
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- Charon's gravity pulls some of its atmosphere
from Pluto. Some of this methane gas
(CH4) deposits as frost on Charon's north pole.
Ultraviolet light and cosmic radiation convert this CH4 to molecules which
create complex long-chain molecules (tholins).
It is these tholin molecules that
create the red color.
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- Charon has no atmosphere at all. The average temperature is -380F. Ammonia (NH4) is a stable solid at this
temperature. A reservoir of ammonia rich
material lies just below Charon's surface.
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Pluto is geologically alive today and has
a lot more to tell us on our next visit.
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- October 24, 2018.
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--------------------- Wednesday, October 24, 2018 -------------------------
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