Scientists have uncovered the mystery of ice “flakes” on the surface of Pluto – RIA Novosti

20:25 01.06.2016

(updated: 20:39 01.06.2016 )

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MOSCOW, June 1 – RIA Novosti. New Horizons probe scientific team published the first data on the structure of the mysterious “scales” on the surface of the plains of Sputnik on Pluto. They emerged from the “cycle” flow of nitrogen ice in its interior, according to articles published in the journal Nature.

New Horizons probe arrives at Pluto system in mid-July 2015. When he opened it and took a picture of the “heart” of the water and sediment nitrogen ice, scientists saw the first puzzle of the dwarf planet – the mysterious “flakes” in the 10-40 kilometers. They cover the left half of the “heart” of Pluto, so called plain Sputnik.

Head of Mission Alan Stern (Alan Stern) from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder (USA) and his colleagues felt “scales” ordinary traces of geologic activity on Pluto, but their nature remained a mystery for almost a year. Today, the mission presented in three articles of the study of these structures, and told about the mechanism of their formation.

Pluto as explained by planetary scientists, like Earth, Titan and other planets with a “live” the subsoil and the hydrosphere. However on it the role of “stony” rock plays hard and brittle water ice, and the role of water and ice – deposits and flows are soft and flowing nitrogen ice. His movement, evaporation and precipitation gave birth, according to Stern and his colleagues, all open New Horizons bizarre objects on Pluto.

For example, the scales on the surface of Pluto, as shown by measurements of tools New Horizons, arose as a result of traffic flows nitrogen ice. Flows rose to the surface of the dwarf planet from the depths of her bowels, and then fell back, traveled over the surface of 10-40 kilometers.

Such a cycle, according to scientists, similar to the way the Earth’s mantle rock, heated by hot core rise to the surface of the planet. There, they are cooled and then fall down, dragging the crust and other “upper” component of the lithosphere.

The computer models of Pluto, built on the basis of data from New Horizons, show that this cycle occurs on the dwarf planet everywhere.

The unusual structure of “flakes” just explained this movement – when the ice stream reaches the surface of Pluto, it is cooled and the ice shrinks. As a result, there are “cells”, as they are called scholars that we can see on the surface of the left half of the “heart” of the dwarf planet.

As the mantle on Earth, the ice flows on Pluto moving deceptively slowly – the surface of each scale in the plains of the Satellite only updated once in a million years. A person like life can seem like an eternity, but by space standards such speed planetary “facelift” – is very high, so that the left half of Pluto’s heart remains forever young, not peppered with traces of craters and wind erosion

In this mystery. ” scales “at the heart of Pluto does not end – opening mechanism of their occurrence, scientists now argue about how there is such a cycle of ice. Some members of New Horizons science team believes that the ice flow go to a depth of 10 kilometers and more, and their opponents believed that these cells convection Pluto ice really shallow – no more than 3-6 kilometers

. These disputes are of great importance for determining how there was the “heart” of Pluto and how it appeared so large reserves of nitrogen ice.

If the validity of the second hypothesis, it would mean that the plains of Sputnik and the other half of the heart represent giant crater filled with ice, and if the former is true, then these structures appeared for some other, more exotic scenarios.

New Horizons transmitted to Earth about 60% of the data, so there is a hope that the answer to the riddle will be received in the near future.