Geology of Pluto

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High-resolution MVIC view of Pluto in enhanced color, illustrating variations in surface composition Pluto-01 Stern 03 Pluto Color TXT.jpg
High-resolution MVIC view of Pluto in enhanced color, illustrating variations in surface composition

The geology of Pluto consists of the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto. Because of Pluto's distance from Earth, in-depth study from Earth is difficult. Many details about Pluto remained unknown until 14 July 2015, when New Horizons flew through the Pluto system and began transmitting data back to Earth. [1] When it did, Pluto was found to have remarkable geologic diversity, with New Horizons team member Jeff Moore saying that it "is every bit as complex as that of Mars". [2] The final New Horizons Pluto data transmission was received on 25 October 2016. [3] [4] In June 2020, astronomers reported evidence that Pluto may have had a subsurface ocean, and consequently may have been habitable, when it was first formed. [5] [6]

Contents

Surface

Polygonal feature north of the dark equatorial regions on Pluto (11 July 2015) Pluto by LORRI, 11 July 2015.jpg
Polygonal feature north of the dark equatorial regions on Pluto
(11 July 2015)

More than 98 percent of Pluto's surface consists of solid nitrogen, with traces of methane and carbon monoxide. [7] The face of Pluto oriented toward Charon contains more solid methane, [8] whereas the opposite face contains more nitrogen and solid carbon monoxide. [9] Distribution of volatile ices is thought to be season-dependent and influenced more by solar insolation and topography than by subsurface processes. [10] [8]

Maps produced from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), together with Pluto's light curve and the periodic variations in its infrared spectra, indicate that Pluto's surface is very varied, with large differences in both brightness and color, [11] with albedos between 0.49 and 0.66. [12] Pluto is one of the most contrastive bodies in the Solar System, with as much contrast as Saturn's moon Iapetus. [13] The color varies between charcoal black, dark orange and white. [14] New Horizons data suggest equally variable surface ages for Pluto, with ancient, dark, mountainous terrain occurring alongside the bright, flat, effectively craterless Sputnik Planitia and various terrains of intermediate age and color.

Pluto's surface color changed between 1994 and 2003: the northern polar region brightened and the southern hemisphere darkened. [14] Pluto's overall redness also increased substantially between 2000 and 2002. [14] These rapid changes probably relate to seasonal condensation and sublimation of portions of Pluto's atmosphere, amplified by Pluto's extreme axial tilt and high orbital eccentricity. [14]

Soft-ice plains and glaciers

Sputnik Planitia appears to be composed of ices more volatile, softer and more dense than the water-ice bedrock of Pluto, including nitrogen, carbon monoxide and solid methane. [15] A polygonal convection cell structure is visible over much of the planitia. No craters have been found, indicating that its surface must be less than 10 million years old. [16] A number of mechanisms are proposed to explain the absence of craters, including cryovolcanism (volcanoes erupting volatiles instead of magma), convective overturn, and viscous relaxation – processes that would erase negative topography. [16] Glaciers of what is probably solid nitrogen can be seen flowing from the planitia into adjacent depressions and craters. Nitrogen from the plain appears to have been carried via the atmosphere and deposited in a thin layer of ice on uplands to the east and south of the plain, forming the large bright eastern lobe of Tombaugh Regio. Glaciers appear to be flowing back into the planitia through valleys from these eastern highlands.

NH-Pluto-FrozenCarbonMonoxide-20150714.jpg
Localization of frozen carbon monoxide in Sputnik Planitia (shorter contours represent higher concentrations).
Troughs in Sputnik Planum by LORRI - crop of PIA19936.jpg
Polygonal ice patterns in southern Sputnik Planitia (context) due to convection. Dark spots in the troughs at lower left are pits. [17]
Pluto-puzzling-pits-2.png
Closeup view of sublimation pits (context) in Sputnik Planitia
PIA20151-Pluto-PitsInSputnikPlanum-20151110.jpg
Additional views of Sputnik Planitia sublimation pits (context); some (left image) have dark material within

Water-ice mountains

Mountains several kilometres high occur along the southwestern and southern edges of Sputnik Planitia. Water ice is the only ice detected on Pluto that is strong enough at Plutonian temperatures to support such heights.

Ancient cratered terrain

Belton Regio and other dark areas have many craters and signatures of solid methane. The dark red color is thought to be due to tholins falling out of Pluto's atmosphere.

Northern latitudes

The mid-northern latitudes display a variety of terrain reminiscent of the surface of Triton. A polar cap consisting of solid methane "diluted in a thick, transparent slab of solid nitrogen" is somewhat darker and redder. [19]

Tartarus Dorsa

Snakeskin terrain formed by penitentes covering Tartarus Dorsa. Snakeskin terrain covering Tartarus Dorsa.png
Snakeskin terrain formed by penitentes covering Tartarus Dorsa.

The western part of Pluto's northern hemisphere consists of an extensive, highly distinctive set of 500-meter-high mountains informally named Tartarus Dorsa; the spacing and shape of the mountains looks similar to scales or to tree bark. A January 2017 Nature paper by Dr. John Moores and his colleagues identified these icy ridges as penitentes. [20] Penitentes are icy depressions formed by erosion and surrounded by tall spires. Pluto is the only planetary body other than Earth on which penitentes have been identified. Although penitentes have been hypothesized on Jupiter's satellite Europa, current theories suggest they may require an atmosphere to form. Moores and his colleagues hypothesize that Pluto's penitentes grow only during periods of high atmospheric pressure, at a rate of approximately 1 centimeter per orbital cycle. These penitentes appear to have formed in the last few tens-of-millions of years, an idea supported by the sparsity of craters in the region, making Tartarus Dorsa one of the youngest regions on Pluto. [20]

Cutting through both Tartarus Dorsa and Pluto's heavily cratered northern terrain (and thus formed more recently than both) is a set of six canyons radiating from a single point; the longest, informally named Sleipnir Fossa, is over 580 kilometers long. These chasms are thought to have originated from pressures caused by material upwelling at the center of the formation. [21]

Possible cryovolcanism

When New Horizons first sent back data from Pluto, Pluto was thought[ by whom? ] to be losing hundreds of tons of its atmosphere an hour to ultraviolet light from the Sun; such an escape rate would be too great to be resupplied by comet impacts. Instead, nitrogen was thought to be resupplied either by cryovolcanism or by geysers bringing it to the surface. Images of structures that imply upwelling of material from within Pluto, and streaks possibly left by geysers, support this view. [17] [22] Subsequent discoveries suggest that Pluto's atmospheric escape was overestimated by several thousand times and thus Pluto could theoretically keep its atmosphere without geological assistance, though evidence of ongoing geology remains strong. [23]

Two possible cryovolcanoes, Wright Mons and Piccard Mons, have been identified in topographic maps of the region south of Sputnik Planitia, near the south pole. Both are over 150 km across and at least 4 km high, the tallest peaks known on Pluto at present. They are lightly cratered and thus geologically young, although not as young as Sputnik Planitia. They are characterized by a large summit depression and hummocky flanks. This represents the first time large potentially cryovolcanic constructs have been clearly imaged anywhere in the Solar System. [24] [25] [26]

A 2019 study identified a second likely cryovolcanic structure around Virgil Fossae, a series of troughs in northeastern Belton Regio, west of Tombaugh Regio. Ammonia-rich cryolavas appear to have erupted from Virgil Fossae and several nearby sites and covered an area of several thousand square kilometers; the fact that the ammonia's spectral signal was detectable when New Horizons flew by Pluto suggests that Virgil Fossae is no older than one billion years and potentially far younger, as galactic cosmic rays would destroy all the ammonia in the upper meter of the crust in that time and solar radiation could destroy the surface ammonia 10 to 10000 times more quickly. The subsurface reservoir from which this cryomagma emerged may have been separate from Pluto's subsurface ocean. [27]

Pluto - possible cryovolcanoes
PIA20361-Pluto-WrightMons-20150714.jpg
Wright Mons (overall context)
Pluto possible cryovolcano - Wright Mons.jpg
Wright Mons, displaying its central depression ( source image (context))
PIA20050-Pluto-IceVolcanoes-20151110.jpg
3D map showing Wright Mons (above) and Piccard Mons

Internal structure

Pluto's pre-New Horizons theoretical structure Water ice crust Liquid water ocean Silicate core Pluto's internal structure2.jpg
Pluto's pre–New Horizons theoretical structure
  • Water ice crust
  • Liquid water ocean
  • Silicate core

Pluto's density is 1.87 g/cm3. [29] Because the decay of radioactive elements would eventually heat the ices enough for the rock to separate from them, scientists think that Pluto's internal structure is differentiated, with the rocky material having settled into a dense core surrounded by a mantle of water ice. [30] Pluto's abundant surface volatiles imply that Pluto is either completely differentiated (and thus has liberated all of the volatiles that had been locked away in its water ice) or formed within less than a million years after the circumstellar disk was cleared (when volatiles were still available to be incorporated into Pluto). [31]

The diameter of the core is hypothesized to be approximately 1700 km, 70% of Pluto's diameter. [28] It is possible that such heating continues today, creating a subsurface ocean layer of liquid water and ammonia some 100 to 180 km thick at the core–mantle boundary. [28] [30] [32] Studies based on New Horizon's images of Pluto reveal no signs of contraction (as would be expected if Pluto's internal water had all frozen and turned into ice II) and imply that Pluto's interior is still expanding, probably due to this internal ocean; this is the first concrete evidence that Pluto's interior is still liquid. [33] [34] Pluto is proposed to have a thick water-ice lithosphere, based on the length of individual faults and lack of localized uplift. Differing trends in the faults suggest previously active tectonics, though its mechanisms remain unknown. [35] The DLR Institute of Planetary Research calculated that Pluto's density-to-radius ratio lies in a transition zone, along with Neptune's moon Triton, between icy satellites like the mid-sized moons of Uranus and Saturn, and rocky satellites such as Jupiter's Io. [36]

Pluto has no magnetic field. [37]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triton (moon)</span> Largest moon of Neptune

Triton is the largest natural satellite of the planet Neptune. It is the only moon of Neptune massive enough to be rounded under its own gravity and hosts a thin but well-structured atmosphere. Triton orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit— revolving in the opposite direction to the parent planet's rotation — the only large moon in the Solar System to do so. Triton is thought to have once been a dwarf planet from the Kuiper belt, captured into Neptune's orbit by the latter's gravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pluto</span> Dwarf planet

Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of the Moon, and one-third its volume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charon (moon)</span> Largest natural satellite of Pluto

Charon, or (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of 606 km (377 mi). Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryovolcano</span> Type of volcano that erupts volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane, instead of molten rock

A cryovolcano is a type of volcano that erupts gases and volatile material such as liquid water, ammonia, and hydrocarbons. The erupted material is collectively referred to as cryolava; it originates from a reservoir of subsurface cryomagma. Cryovolcanic eruptions can take many forms, such as fissure and curtain eruptions, effusive cryolava flows, and large-scale resurfacing, and can vary greatly in output volumes. Immediately after an eruption, cryolava quickly freezes, constructing geological features and altering the surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penitente (snow formation)</span> Field of regularly spaced ice formations formed by sublimation at high altitudes

Penitentes, or nieves penitentes, are snow formations found at high altitudes. They take the form of elongated, thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced and pointing towards the general direction of the sun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diacria quadrangle</span> Map of Mars

The Diacria quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the northwestern portion of Mars' western hemisphere and covers 180° to 240° east longitude and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Diacria quadrangle is also referred to as MC-2. The Diacria quadrangle covers parts of Arcadia Planitia and Amazonis Planitia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmosphere of Pluto</span> Layer of gases surrounding the dwarf planet Pluto

The atmosphere of Pluto is the layer of gasses that surround the dwarf planet Pluto. It consists mainly of nitrogen (N2), with minor amounts of methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which are vaporized from surface ices on Pluto's surface. It contains layered haze, probably consisting of heavier compounds which form from these gases due to high-energy radiation. The atmosphere of Pluto is notable for its strong and not completely understood seasonal changes caused by peculiarities of the orbital and axial rotation of Pluto.

Scalloped topography is common in the mid-latitudes of Mars, between 45° and 60° north and south. It is particularly prominent in the region of Utopia Planitia, in the northern hemisphere, and in the region of Peneus and Amphitrites Paterae in the southern hemisphere. Such topography consists of shallow, rimless depressions with scalloped edges, commonly referred to as "scalloped depressions" or simply "scallops". Scalloped depressions can be isolated or clustered and sometimes seem to coalesce. A typical scalloped depression displays a gentle equator-facing slope and a steeper pole-facing scarp. This topographic asymmetry is probably due to differences in insolation. Scalloped depressions are believed to form from the removal of subsurface material, possibly interstitial ice, by sublimation. This process may still be happening at present. This topography may be of great importance for future colonization of Mars because it may point to deposits of pure ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice planet</span> Planet with an icy surface

An ice planet or icy planet is a type of planet with an icy surface of volatiles such as water, ammonia, and methane. Ice planets consist of a global cryosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tombaugh Regio</span> Bright region on Pluto

Tombaugh Regio, sometimes nicknamed "Pluto's heart" after its shape, is the largest bright surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It lies just north of Pluto's equator, to the northeast of Belton Regio and to the northwest of Safronov Regio, which are both dark features. Its western lobe, a 1,000 km (620 mi)-wide plain of nitrogen and other ices lying within a basin, is named Sputnik Planitia. The eastern lobe consists of high-albedo uplands thought to be coated by nitrogen transported through the atmosphere from Sputnik Planitia, and then deposited as ice. Some of this nitrogen ice then returns to Sputnik Planitia via glacial flow. The region is named after Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belton Regio</span> Equatorial dark region on Pluto

Belton Regio is a prominent surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It is an elongated dark region along Pluto's equator, 2,990 km (1,860 mi) long and one of the darkest features on its surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordor Macula</span> North polar dark region on Charon

Mordor Macula is the informal name for a large dark area about 475 km in diameter near the north pole of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. It is named after the black land called Mordor in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Charon</span> Geologic structure and composition of Charon

The geology of Charon encompasses the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto's moon Charon. Like the geology of Pluto, almost nothing was known of Charon's geology until the New Horizons of the Pluto system on 14 July 2015. Charon's diameter is 1,208 km (751 mi)—just over half that of Pluto. Charon is sufficiently massive to have collapsed into a spheroid under its own gravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Pluto</span>

The geography of Pluto refers to the study and mapping of physical features across the dwarf planet Pluto. On 14 July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to fly by Pluto. During its brief flyby, New Horizons made detailed geographical measurements and observations of Pluto and its moons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sputnik Planitia</span> Glaciated basin on Pluto

Sputnik Planitia is a large, partially glaciated basin on Pluto. About 1,400 by 1,200 km in size, Sputnik Planitia is partially submerged in large, bright glaciers of nitrogen ice. Named after Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, it constitutes the western lobe of the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio. Sputnik Planitia lies mostly in the northern hemisphere, but extends across the equator. Much of it has a surface of irregular polygons separated by troughs, interpreted as convection cells in the relatively soft nitrogen ice. The polygons average about 33 km (21 mi) across. In some cases troughs are populated by blocky mountains or hills, or contain darker material. There appear to be windstreaks on the surface with evidence of sublimation. The dark streaks are a few kilometers long and all aligned in the same direction. The planitia also contains pits apparently formed by sublimation. No craters were detectable by New Horizons, implying a surface less than 10 million years old. Modeling sublimation pit formation yields a surface age estimate of 180000+90000
−40000 years. Near the northwest margin is a field of transverse dunes, spaced about 0.4 to 1 km apart, that are thought to be composed of 200-300 μm diameter particles of methane ice derived from the nearby Al-Idrisi Montes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Montes</span> Blocky mountain range on Pluto

The Hillary Montes or are a mountain range that reach 3.5 km above the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. They are located northwest of Tenzing Montes in the southwest border area of Sputnik Planitia in the south of Tombaugh Regio. The Hillary Montes were first viewed by the New Horizons spacecraft on 14 July 2015, and announced by NASA on 24 July 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wright Mons</span> Mountain on Pluto

Wright Mons is a large, roughly circular mountain and likely cryovolcano on the dwarf planet Pluto. Discovered by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, it is located southwest of Sputnik Planitia within Hyecho Palus, adjacent to the Tenzing Montes and Belton Regio. A relatively young geological feature, Wright Mons has attracted attention as one of the most apparent examples of recent geological activity on Pluto and borders numerous other similarly young features. Numerous semi-regular hills surround and partially construct the flanks of Wright Mons. Their nature remains unexplained, with few, if any, direct analogs elsewhere in the Solar System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burney (crater)</span> Multi-ring impact basin on Pluto

Burney, sometimes referred to as the Burney basin, is the second-largest known impact basin on the dwarf planet Pluto. With a diameter of over 290 kilometers and possibly up to 350 kilometers, it is the second-largest known impact basin on Pluto, after the Sputnik Planitia basin. Burney is the only impact basin with visible multiple rings known on Pluto and is thus classified as a multi-ringed impact basin, though its rings have been heavily eroded due to Burney's age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Triton</span> Geologic structure and composition of Triton

The geology of Triton encompasses the physical characteristics of the surface, internal structure, and geological history of Neptune's largest moon Triton. With a mean density of 2.061 g/cm3, Triton is roughly 15-35% water ice by mass; Triton is a differentiated body, with an icy solid crust atop a probable subsurface ocean and a rocky core. As a result, Triton's surface geology is largely driven by the dynamics of water ice and other volatiles such as nitrogen and methane. Triton's geology is vigorous, and has been and continues to be influenced by its unusual history of capture, high internal heat, and its thin but significant atmosphere.

References

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