Pluto Predictions, What will NH find? |
Pluto Predictions, What will NH find? |
Oct 3 2008, 04:50 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Dunes.
And basins. Maybe not as thoroughly chemically processed as Titan's basins, but basins. What do you think New Horizons will find at Pluto? How will Pluto surprise us? -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Oct 5 2008, 12:00 AM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
I think that Mars is to Earth as Pluto is to Titan.
I imagine Pluto as an older and colder version of Titan. I wonder if at some point in the far deep past that Pluto had a substantial nitrogen atmosphere and might've gotten warm enough to support a nitrogen ocean. Maybe there is a possible scenario where Pluto had a full meteorological cycle involving nitrogen (azatological cycle?). Nitrogen rains condensing out onto a frozen hydrocarbon surface, carving out channels, filling in basins, and making dunes from hydrocarbon sediment blown in a nitrogen wind. Then over time the nitrogen was lost, or froze out, and everything dried up. The tidal effects of Charon may give Pluto two different faces. A warmer one towards Charon due to tidal effects, and a colder one facing away from Charon. The cooler one probably looking older and more crater-ridden (and maybe covered in nitrogen frost that moved from warmer hemisphere to the colder one.) While Pluto will be surprising, I'll bet Charon will be fun. -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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