“X” Marks the Spot of Convective Churning on Hot Pluto

universe today ^ | 01/08/2016 | Ken Kremer

[BenLurkin]

X marks the spot that's illustrative of "convective churning" resulting from subsurface planetary heating, as seen in a fascinating new super high resolution image received from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2015. Its situated at the very center of the left ventricle of Pluto's huge "heart" - an icy flow plain that's informally named "Sputnik Planum."

The "X" feature - see image above - is located in an area of intersecting cells, shaped like polygons, on the plains of "Sputnik Planum" which are mostly comprised of frozen nitrogen ices.

So what's really piqued the interest of scientists leading the New Horizons mission, is that the "X" feature is a residue of "convective churning" or internal heating and it has changed over time.

Indeed the "X" is found at what appears to be the melted remnants of a quadruple junction of the polygonal or cellular patterns, that dominate Sputnik Planum. And it’s not tiny!

"This part of Pluto is acting like a lava lamp,"said William McKinnon, deputy lead of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team, from Washington University in St. Louis, "if you can imagine a lava lamp as wide as, and even deeper than, the Hudson Bay."

[BenLurkin]

X marks the spot in this image transmitted to Earth on Dec. 24, 2015 from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) from NASA’s New Horizons' showing the highest-resolution swath of Pluto at the center of Sputnik Planum, the informally named plain that forms the left side of Pluto's "heart." The pattern of polygonal cells stems from the slow thermal convection of the nitrogen-dominated ices. Also visible is a dirty block of water ice "floating" in denser solid nitrogen. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

[Jack Hydrazine]

[PIF]

“Also visible is a dirty block of water ice “floating” in denser solid nitrogen”

Can’t they see that there is a mining operation underway? Are they blind or what?

[GraceG]

Looks like a snow cat making a trail...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Looks like a snow cat making a trail...

I thought it looked like a booger on as basketball.

[Zeppo]

Wormsign.

Definitely wormsign.

[Redcitizen]

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

[tet68]

Obviously, that is Barbarella’s
ice glider...

[BenLurkin]

Excellent

[TexasRepublic]

Iceworms, worse than sand diggers.

[ronnie raygun]

The spice

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin, bfl.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.

[Monkey Face]

I’m speechless! <3

[Red Badger]

‘Hot’ and ‘Pluto’ are not two words you would normally associate together...................

[SunkenCiv]

Unless you were Bill Clinton... “that Pluto is kinda hot”... started in a theater, watching a Disney picture...

[SunkenCiv]

:’)