pluto

atmosphere

- this atmosphere of nitrogen - plutonian summer some N2 sublimates from ice to air, increasing atmospheric pressure. - plutos atmosphere contains N2, Co, methan and hydrogen. - pluto has weather

cthulhu regio

- very old region, many craters and tectonic fractures - bright icy material appears to overlay darker tholin-rich surface material, suggesting glacial flow of young material over the older surface

moons of pluto

5 known moons. the largest is Charon, roughly half the diameter of pluto. - they are not tidally locked - they are spinning a lot

tombaugh rego

bright, crater free region

discovery of pluto

clyde tombaugh discovered pluto

pluto surface (2)

complex surface, with high albedo. surface features show evidence of glaciological, erosional, tectonic, sediment transport,

pluto surface

composed largely of water ice. water is a tough mineral and behaves like rock, forming landscape and eroding into sediment sand / dust

interior of pluto

compromised of water ice covered partially by nitrogen ice, but the internal organization of the world is yet unclear - pluto has a density of 1.9, indicating its made up of about two/thirds rock and one third ice. it is probably differentiated into an ice mantle and rocky core. it is possible pluto has an interior ocean of liquid water.

Cthulul regio

covered in dark material, likely tholin far mixed with ices

bedrock surface

covered with soft nitrogen ice, mixed in places with carbon monoxide and methane ice. darker surface materials are probably ice mixed with frozen tholin material

contact binaries

made up of at least two large masses of ice/rock that have merged gravitationally.

hillary montes and norgay montes

mountains of bright water ice. these mountains show evidence of glacial flow and jumbled terrain suggesting some mountains are actually icebergs

mountains and glaciers

nearby polygon features imply glacial flow of nitrogen ice rafts. nitrogen ice fills craters, demonstrating mass movement or precipitation of snow

pluto the planet

orbits the sun every 248 earth years, highly eccentric orbit that inclines out of the ecliptic plane. has a high albedo, indicating a young, icy surface. rotation is titled 112 degrees, so it rotates in a retrograde direction.

new horizons

performed a successful flyby of the pluto charon system. it took over a year for the probe to send all its recorded mission data to earth.

pluto and charon

pluto is orbited by one large moon, Charon, and at least four much smaller moons. Charon is about half the diameter of pluto, making their mutual orbit more like a double planet system than a planet-moon system. Charon is tidally locked to pluto, so that one side faces pluto all the time.

pluto and neptune

pluto occupies a 2:3 orbital resonance with neptune, meaning that for every 2 pluto orbits, neptune completes 3 orbits.

pluto the kulper belt object

small icy bodies formed during accretion of the solar system, and comprised mostly of ice and rock.

nitrogen slush ocean

sputnik planum might be a vast "ocean" of soft nitrogen ice, crusted with nitrogen ice fields in which float slowly tumbling mountains of water ice.

formation of pluto - charon

they were probably formed by a large impact on pluto, splitting it into two objects

cryovolcanoes

volcanoes that erupt molten ice (liquid water slush). if true, plutos interior is warm enough to create a partial melt of water ammonia ice.

snakeskin terrain

wide regions of pluto are covered in "snakeskin" terrain of fluted knife-sharp ridges, probably formed by wind erosion of water-ice hills over billions of years

sputnik planium

wide, flat region, covered in soft nitrogren ice that can flow glacially