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 15 2008, 04:46 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 509 Joined: 2-July 05 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 426 |
After thinking about this a bit more:
If the giant-impact model of Charon's formation is correct, it's likely that Charon formed quite a lot closer to Pluto than is the case today. This means that it may originally have had an "egg-shaped" profile (similar to Mimas) caused by tidal effects. Eventually, Charon moved outwards, and the system reached the mutually-tidally-locked configuration. However, with Pluto's mass being so small, I wonder if Charon's orbital evolution could have proceeded slowly enough for the moon to solidify completely before it reached its current distance from Pluto? If that's the case, Charon may show some features characteristic of relaxation of an initially ellipsoidal solid body to a more circular shape. Sort of a reverse version of what happened to Iapetus, maybe? |
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