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Evidence of nitrogen ice glaciers on Pluto

Using data sent back by New Horizons during its fly-by of Pluto scientists now think they have identified land forms created by past nitrogen ice glaciers.

The washboard and fluted terrain … occur at the location on Sputnik Planitia’s perimeter where elevations and slopes leading into the surrounding uplands are lowest, and also where a major tectonic system coincides with the edge of Sputnik Planitia. The low elevation of the area makes it a natural setting for past coverage by nitrogen ice glaciers, as indicated by modeling of volatile behavior on Pluto performed by Dr. Bertrand at Ames.

Through comparison of the washboard and fluted texture with parallel chains of elongated sublimation pits (depressions in the surface formed where ice turns directly into a gas) seen in southern Sputnik Planitia, the ridges are interpreted to represent water ice debris liberated by tectonism of underlying crust. This water ice debris was buoyant in the denser, pitted glacial nitrogen ice that is interpreted to have formerly covered this area, and collected on the floors of the elongated pits. After the nitrogen ice receded via sublimation, the debris was left as the aligned ridges, mimicking the sublimation texture – washboard ridges where deposited on flat terrain, and fluted ridges where deposited on steeper slopes.

This is strange stuff. The solid bedrock here, water ice, will float on the nitrogen ice sitting on top of it. Thus, the material that wants to sublimate away, nitrogen, sometimes has to fight its way past the water ice that has risen to the top of the pile.

To put it mildly, we hardly understand these alien processes. This research is merely a first stab, the first hand-waving.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Lee S

    I love this stuff!!!
    Bob, we disagree on many topics…. But we sure do agree that the universe is a wonderful, amazing, and oh so very alien place…. Thank you for sharing!!
    ( On a very different note, I have just returned from a week in West Virginia… I couldn’t help but notice the very visible coal seams sandwiched between the limestone strata… I briefly searched for fossils, without success.. any tips on accessable caves or fossil rich strata ? I will be returning in the spring…. )
    Thanks in advance Bob!

  • wodun

    To put it mildly, we hardly understand these alien processes. This research is merely a first stab, the first hand-waving.

    There are a lot of data to go over but it would be nice if we had another satellite in transit for another flyby or even one traveling at a pace that would allow it to orbit.

  • wayne

    “Pluto’s Revenge: Neil Degrasse Tyson gets Me Too’d”
    Owen Benjamin show #176
    December 3, 2018
    https://youtu.be/Q-JrDcl7VR8
    (1:41:42)
    [“Neil degrasse Tyson has had some pretty interesting tweets that I’ll review as well as his rape allegation. He made Pluto not a planet, Pluto don’t play that. I also give a quick piano lesson at the end. Enjoy!”]

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