Pluto is covered in a lot of frozen water

CNN ^ | Jareen Imam,

[BenLurkin]

Pluto has way more frozen water than scientists originally thought.

The dwarf planet is coated with a large amount of ice, according to a new map using previously collected data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

This map is more sensitive than an earlier version that was created using data by New Horizons' historic fly by in 2015. The previous map was at a disadvantage because water ice can be easily masked by frozen methane. So it only showed areas with an especially large amount of frozen water.

A new method, which involved NASA stitching together two infrared images captured by New Horizons' Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) instrument, at a distance of about 67,000 miles, allowed scientists to mute ice signatures created by other elements, such as methane and nitrogen, and heighten the signature for water ice. What they discovered was a lot of frozen water blanketing little Pluto's surface.

...

According to the new map of Pluto, there's little evidence of ice water in the Sputnik Planum, which lies in the western region of Pluto's "heart," and Lowell Regio, NASA officials said in a statement on Thursday. "This indicates that at least in these regions, Pluto's icy bedrock is well hidden beneath a thick blanket of other ices such as methane, nitrogen and carbon monoxide," according to the statement.

[BenLurkin]

“Remember the Cant”

[Blue Highway]

Send Al Gore to Pluto with 2 conservatives and within 2 weeks he will be whining about global warming on the planet Pluto.

[WMarshal]

What a surprise! What do they expect with a small planet on the edge of the solar system, in the frozen dark, surrounded by icy comets? NASA must do most of their hiring from Ivy League colleges.