Study Finds Liquid Nitrogen Flowed on Pluto Within 1 Million Years
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 6
Study Finds Liquid Nitrogen Flowed on Pluto Within 1 Million Years
3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 6
Summary
Less than 1 million years ago, liquid nitrogen likely reached Pluto’s surface in Sputnik Planitia, giving scientists what they call the first evidence of recent liquid flow on the dwarf planet.
New analysis of 2015 New Horizons images tied dark linear markings in the heart-shaped glacier to computer simulations showing subsurface nitrogen could rise through narrow conduits and stay liquid long enough to shape the surface.
Pluto’s current thin atmosphere makes liquid-nitrogen rain impossible, steering researchers away from surface weather and toward upwelling from beneath the glacier as the most plausible source.
Sputnik Planitia had already stood out in Hubble data as unusually bright, and the new result adds to signs that Pluto hosts time-variable terrain unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system.