Posted on 05/20/2019 5:57:14 PM PDT by EdnaMode
hen NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, researchers hoped that its data would help them unravel some of the dwarf planet's mysteries. Instead, the discoveries made during the close-up look at Pluto and its moon Charon revealed more questions that needed answering.
One of the big revelations from the flyby was the discovery of an ocean beneath the icy shell encapsulating Pluto. The ice shell was thin in a spot near the equator that's about the size of Texas, known as Sputnik Planitia, which helped researchers notice Pluto's odd topography and suggest the ocean's existence.
But this created a conundrum. Given the age of Pluto, estimated to be between 4.4 billion and 4.6 billion years, the ocean should have frozen hundreds of millions of years ago. And rather than forming a bubble, the ice shell should have flattened over the frozen ocean.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You Freepers are being very disrespectful. This is from CNN
I thought Pluto was de-planetized?
Well let’s see...Water freezes at 32 degrees F...And what is the temperature on Pluto???
Maybe Pluto has a Sun that Nasa hasn’t discovered yet...
Plutonian Warming.
I know this one! I know this one!
The answer is.....
Natural gas from Uranus.
If not something that was just cast, that may be mostly Pu-240. These are commonly used in RTG (radioisotope thermal generators) used in deep space probes.
lol
Damnit.
Second answer.
OK
My second guess is Tibetan Salt Candles.
It’s probably not freezing because Pluto repeatedly gains and sheds atmosphere as it comes nearer to the Sun than Neptune and then swings back out to the Kuiper Belt on its 248 year orbit. Or, could some of that 70% rock be mercury?
Plutonium 239 is the fissionable isotope.
Ah, so. Thanks!
I always have wondered about the equator line on the Death Star... makes it look like if you twisted the two halves apart, you'd find it full of Silly Putty.
Pluto's cockles are warming.
-PJ
“That’s no moon. It’s a space station!”
/ObiWan>
CC
If only 0.1” and unshielded, when you manage to get with in 100 yards and after losing all you hair, bleeding out of every orifice, you will far over dead.
The way it is written it makes one think of water. Heck - it wouldn’t surprise me if the CNN science reporter thought it is made of water.
But yeah - methane is what I was thinking of. Except the density of methane hydrates is greater than liquid methane. At least on earth.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
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