Skip to main content

Frozen ocean caused Pluto’s moon to stretch like ‘Hulk’: NASA

  • Pluto’s largest moon Charon once had a subsurface ocean which has frozen long ago and expanded, pushing and stretching the natural satellite’s surface like ‘Hulk’ while causing massive fractures, a new NASA image has shown.

The new image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft suggest that Charon’s tectonic landscape shows that, somehow, the moon expanded in its past, and — like the fictional superhero Bruce Banner tearing his shirt as he becomes the Incredible Hulk — Charon’s surface fractured as it stretched, researchers said.
‘Pull apart’ tectonic faults
  • The side of Pluto’s largest moon viewed by NASA’s passing New Horizons in July 2015 is characterised by a system of “pull apart” tectonic faults, which are expressed as ridges, scarps and valleys — the latter sometimes reaching more than 6.5 kilometres deep.
  • The outer layer of Charon is primarily water ice. This layer was kept warm when Charon was young by heat provided by the decay of radioactive elements, as well as Charon’s own internal heat formation.
  • Scientists said Charon could have been warm enough to cause the water ice to melt deep down, creating a subsurface ocean. However, as Charon cooled over time, this ocean would have frozen and expanded (as happens when water freezes), lifting the outermost layers of the moon and producing the massive chasms we see today.

Serenity Chasma
  • The image released by NASA shows part of the feature informally named Serenity Chasma, part of a vast equatorial belt of chasms on Charon.
  • This system of faults and fractures runs at least 1,800 kilometres long and in places there are chasms 7.5 kilometres deep.

Contrast it with Grand Canyon
  • By comparison, the Grand Canyon is 446 km long and just over 1.6 km deep.
  • Using measurements of shape of this feature, scientists suggest that Charon’s water ice layer may have been at least partially liquid in its early history, and has since refrozen.
  • The image was obtained by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on the New Horizons spacecraft. The image resolution is about 394 meters per pixel.
  • It measures 386 kilometres long and 175 kilometres wide. It was obtained at a range of approximately 78,700 kilometres from Charon, about an hour and 40 minutes before New Horizons’ closest approach to Charon on July 14 last year.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Tech Vision-2035

India Tech Vision-2035 India's technology thinktank under the ministry of science & technology has come out with `Technology Vision 2035' here at the ongoing Indian Science Congress, identifying the challenges ahead and how they can be dealt with through technological interventions while realising the dream of a developed India by the year 2035. The thinktank -Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) -in the vision document lists a technology roadmap for India, giving details of 12 sectors and technologies that in some cases exist but need to be deployed, some in the pilot stage that must be scaled up and technologies in R&D stage. It, in fact, talks about many future technologies, ranging from flying cars, real time translation software, personalised medicine, wearable devices, e-sensing (e-nose and e-tongue) to 100% recyclable materials among others which may be used in different areas to solve day-to-day problems “The trajectories del...
Post a Comment
Read more

Delhi Dialogue to focus on trading blocs (TPP) and Impact of TPP on India-ASEAN ties

Delhi Dialogue to focus on Impact of TPP on India-ASEAN ties The  impact of the U.S.-led mega trading and political blocs on India-ASEAN ties  is likely to be the highlight of the 8th round of  Delhi Dialogue . One emerging mega bloc, the  Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), received a major boost recently with the joining of Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore (ASEAN Countries). Diplomats are concerned that India will have to adjust to  the new set of security and economic rules  as increasing number of Southeast Asian countries join TPP, which began taking shape with the arrival of President Barack Obama to the White House in 2009. “The process of joining TPP by several countries in Southeast Asia has highlighted the conflicting segments in the Southeast Asian region. Delhi Dialogue will give us a chance to assess how India will have to adjust to these mega trading and political blocs  emerging in this region which is vital fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

12 April is Observed as International Day of Human Space Flight

12th April is being observed as the International Day of Human Space Flight to commemorate the date of the first human space flight in the history of mankind every year.  In 1961 Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet Union (USSR) cosmonaut undertook first successful first human space flight on this day. And this historic occasion had opened the way for space study for the benefit of all humanity. This historic day is celebrated as Cosmonautics Day in Russia and some other former USSR countries. This year 2016 is 55th anniversary of First Human Space Flight. Background After UN General Assembly had passed its resolution A/RES/65/271 of 7 April 2011, United Nations (UN) had declared 12th of April as the International Day of Human Space Flight. The main objective behind international celebration of this day is to memories each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind. It also aims to reaffirm the important role of space science and technology...
Post a Comment
Read more