Pluto’s Mysterious, Floating Hills

NASA ^ | 4 Feb, 2016 | NASA

[MtnClimber]

The nitrogen ice glaciers on Pluto appear to carry an intriguing cargo: numerous, isolated hills that may be fragments of water ice from Pluto's surrounding uplands. These hills individually measure one to several miles or kilometers across, according to images and data from NASA's New Horizons mission.

The hills, which are in the vast ice plain informally named Sputnik Planum within Pluto's 'heart,' are likely miniature versions of the larger, jumbled mountains on Sputnik Planum's western border. They are yet another example of Pluto's fascinating and abundant geological activity.

Because water ice is less dense than nitrogen-dominated ice, scientists believe these water ice hills are floating in a sea of frozen nitrogen and move over time like icebergs in Earth's Arctic Ocean. The hills are likely fragments of the rugged uplands that have broken away and are being carried by the nitrogen glaciers into Sputnik Planum. 'Chains' of the drifting hills are formed along the flow paths of the glaciers. When the hills enter the cellular terrain of central Sputnik Planum, they become subject to the convective motions of the nitrogen ice, and are pushed to the edges of the cells, where the hills cluster in groups reaching up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) across.

[MtnClimber]

Great photos at link.

[ETL]

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[SkyDancer]

I’ll bet it’s really cold there in order for that to happen.

[txnativegop]

thanks for the post, MtnClimber.

[MtnClimber]

Yes, cold. At its warmest, when it is closest to the sun, Pluto can reach temperatures of minus 369 degrees Fahrenheit. At its coolest, temperatures can fall to minus 387 degrees F.

[Larry Lucido]

You would definitely need a sweater.

[Impy]

Send Al Gore there and I’d bet he’d say it’s melting.

[MtnClimber]

That is a great idea!

[Delta 21]

Worm sign.

[Redcitizen]

Mom was right.

[mowowie]

There are some seriously cool pictures and articles on Pluto on that site.

[dr_lew]

Well, that's a sore point. Check out Charles Astro . Who is this guy? He's not saying. Some kind of highly educated amateur, I'm guessing. Anyway, his wordpress blog is immensely superior in many ways to the offical NASA New Horizons site. He gives an elaborate and coherent explanation of the extant flyby photos. Perhaps he is mistaken in his interpretation, but he has no peers on the internet. The New Horizons NASA site is a complete mess. They are apparently keeping their cards close to the vest, and the various images and videos are in complete disarray, as they seem to be catering to a grade school mentality. I find the whole thing very distressing.

[dr_lew]

I should add: At the Charles Astro link, you need to click on the "three bars" icon at the upper right to access the content. This gives you a menu of the several articales ... "A MODEL FOR PLUTO ..." , "PLUTO'S SUBTLE GLOBAL STRIPES ..." , etc.

[r_barton]

Pluto, the Smoothie Planet. ;-)

[Slyfox]

You are right. Those were some cool pics.

[PIF]

That particular mess is nothing compared to the Apollo mess, which is dwarfed by the Clementine mess ... NASA and the US Navy are agencies who have spent billions in space exploration are either hiding something huge or are totally incompetent. You pick.

[houeto]

Ping!

[minnesota_bound]

#7 so they have global warming there too!