Pluto’s Surprising Geology: Glaciers, Mountains, and a Hint of Ocean
TL;DR Summary
The 2015 New Horizons flyby revealed Pluto as a geologically active world, with flowing nitrogen glaciers in Sputnik Planitia, towering water-ice mountains, a blue haze in its atmosphere, and hints of a subsurface liquid ocean, challenging the idea of a lifeless, frozen relic and suggesting distance and cold don’t preclude internal activity.
- Pluto was expected to be a frozen, cratered relic, but when New Horizons flew past in 2015 it found flowing nitrogen glaciers, mountains of water ice and hints of a hidden ocean, on a world where the Sun looks like just a bright star Space Daily
- APOD: 2019 September 10 - Pluto in True Color NASA Science (.gov)
- Look Up: Demoted But Not Forgotten Addison Independent
- APOD: 2019 October 20 - Pluto at Night NASA Science (.gov)
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