Posted on 01/16/2016 7:46:44 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Informally named Wright Mons, a broad mountain about 150 kilometers across and 4 kilometers high with a wide, deep summit depression is featured in this inset image captured during the New Horizons flyby of Pluto in July 2015. Of course, broad mountains with summit craters are found elsewhere in the Solar System, like the large shield volcano Mauna Loa on planet Earth or giant Olympus Mons on Mars. New Horizons scientists note the striking similarity of Pluto's Wright Mons, and nearby Piccard Mons, to large shield volcanoes suggests the two could be giant cryovolcanoes that once erupted molten ice from the interior of the cold, distant world. In fact, found on a frozen dwarf planet Wright Mons could be the largest volcano in the outer Solar System. Since only one impact crater has been identified on its slopes, Wright Mons may well have been active late in Pluto's history. This highest resolution color image also reveals red material sparsely scattered around the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute]
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Pluto has turned out to be QUITE an interesting little planet.
The feature at the top left of the inset at 11 o’clock appears to be a Plutonian pluton.
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"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet. |
Yup, a clear-cut example of a deposit of Plutonite.
IMHO, which counts for nothing in the eyes of scientists, Parade’s definition makes perfect sense.
I keep hoping that now we’ve seen such fabulous pix of Pluto’s surface, scientists will re-think their current definition and re-establish Pluto as a planet.
I constantly check for, and save, new images of its surface and haven’t ceased to be amazed yet. One “WOW” after another.
I wholeheartedly agree.
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