New Horizons Found 2015 Pluto Glaciers and Ice Mountains, Hinting at a Hidden Ocean
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 3
New Horizons Found 2015 Pluto Glaciers and Ice Mountains, Hinting at a Hidden Ocean
3 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 3
Summary
2015 flyby data showed Pluto is geologically active, with Sputnik Planitia appearing as a vast nitrogen-ice glacier whose smooth, nearly crater-free surface points to ongoing resurfacing.
Kilometre-high mountains made of water ice, possible ice volcanoes and a thin nitrogen atmosphere with blue haze reinforced that Pluto is not the frozen, inert world scientists had expected.
Geophysical clues tied to Sputnik Planitia also suggest liquid water may still persist beneath Pluto’s icy shell, though the subsurface ocean remains an inference rather than a direct detection.
New Horizons reached Pluto after a 9-year, roughly 5 billion-kilometre journey in 2015 and remains the only spacecraft to study the dwarf planet up close, fueling calls for a future orbiter.