New Pluto images discussed Options

[Julius]

I wouldnt be surprised if Pluto has geysers like Triton.

[Juramike]

Charon and Pluto are tidally locked.

But how long ago did that happen?

Could there still be residual subsurface heat from past friction? Maybe we are detecting the Pluto version of Hotei Arcus?

[Hungry4info]

With as close as Pluto and Charon are, I would presume that tidal locking happened not long after Charon's formation.

[nprev]

Re residual tidal energy dissipation: That's a damn good question, and I wondered about that myself. This is very much unexplored territory, though. I don't think that we have a very good understanding yet of the thermodynamic behavior of "cryo-icy" bodies like Pluto. Bluntly speaking, this world is extremely freaking cold, and the critical points for a wide variety of materials are rather closely clustered around the expected variations in ambient temperature.

We may find that dynamism in terms of geological activity is in fact a very relative function in the context of a given world's environment. It may take far less energy to induce global changes on a body of any random composition with numerous caveats re tidal situation & solar heating levels then we've assumed. If true, this is unexpected & quite interesting.

[AndyG]

...the brighter locations cool down first and get more frost first.

All things being equal, oughtn't dark areas cool faster than bright ones?

Andy

[ugordan]

All things being equal, oughtn't dark areas cool faster than bright ones?

Darker areas absorb more sunlight.

[Fran Ontanaya]

I guess the mass displaced by the seasonal changes will be negligible compared with the mass of Pluto. If it wasn't, though, it could be a source of stress despite the tidal lock.

[Mixer]

Has anybody got a link to listen to the audio of the telecon after the fact? I've been through the links but can't seem to find an archive?

[hendric]

Where is the sub-Charon point on the map? My guess is that prehistoric volatiles ejected from Charon hit Pluto and caused that point to be whiter than the rest, with the heavier complex compounds with color getting left behind. My bet is that Charon is small enough that its surface ices can escape to Pluto.

Hmmm...I hadn't thought of the way they pirouette around each other. Maybe the real gathering point for the ices on Pluto would be the part of the planet leading the orbit. (where is that location on the map?)

[volcanopele]

Anti-Charon hemisphere...

[imipak]

Darker areas absorb more sunlight.

Am I right to think Pluto's orbit crosses the borders of multiple sun-centred concentric zones, analagous to the habitability zone for liquid water, where many phase-space curves cluster in a fairly narrow temperature range? (Phase-spaces for what, though? Presumably the surface is covered in tholins and similar fancy hydro-carbons, with some high-albedo ices?)

Hendric's post #70 above makes me wonder whether the Iapetus albedo dichotomy and the tantalising hints about Pluto could be due to a phenomena similar to "albedo flip feedback". (NB, that's a term from terrestial climatology, a banned topic, so I'm not even going to describe it: GIYF. But it seems similar to the Iapetus story.)

[AndyG]

Darker areas absorb more sunlight.

Well, not during the three+ days of darkness. The dark areas must shed heat much faster than the light areas during that spell...

Without much/any atmosphere, dawn must result in dark/very cold areas versus light/somewhat warmer areas.

??

Andy

[nprev]

All these comments certainly illuminate the potential complexity of Pluto; clearly, we need some close observations to correlate any theoretical mechanisms with reality.

5.5 more years...

[tasp]

Heating of the surface will certainly be a complex topic (if 'heating' is the right word for discussing objects colder than liquid nitrogen). I have noted around here, that despite the biting winter cold, the ground remains essentially unfrozen beneath the snow drifts, and yet exposed soil is frozen solid to at least 3 feet. So to the texture and 'fluff' if you will on Pluto will factor into the penetration of the cold, or rather, the 'shallowness' of the heat (if any) dissipating from the Plutonian core. I have no idea what the 'R' values of methane snow vs. block methane ice is (or any other likely surface deposits) but the surface colors and the surface textures there will be sigificant variables. Earthly glaciers seem to compactify the snow into ice at relatively shallow depths, but the low grav on Pluto might allow even very slowly accumulating 'snows' to achieve considerable depth (and 'R' value) to occur. But then you would have something potentially quite interesting if the bottom layer flashed to vapor . . .

I am picturing almost ethereal geysers wafting from gossamer drifts, or dunes. The Tritonian analogy might be quite apt.

[remcook]

"Well, not during the three+ days of darkness. The dark areas must shed heat much faster than the light areas during that spell..."

The heat is shed at different wavelengths (infrared). Only when it's 'darker' in the infrared will it shed heat faster.