HONG KONG: Scans of Pluto’s surface have suggested that the far away dwarf planet had been active in the last few hundred million years and the behavior of ice on its surface suggests that tidal forces are at play but NASA scientists could not determine from where the planet might be getting that energy.
Revealing its interpretation of the images and data collected by it New Horizons spacecraft, the American space agency also revealed that radio scans established a pressure baseline of ~10 µbar at Pluto’s surface. That is nearly 100 times weaker than Earth’s atmosphere at sea level.
Its moons are minor as well as shiner. Nix and Hydra were particularly reflective to NASA’s spacecraft, may be because of water ice. The variety of Pluto’s surface features surprised even scientists.
New Horizons project scientist Hal Weaver said, “What’s driving what seems to be tectonic activity on the surface, these glacier flows, these incredibly complicated regions on the surface that just look like a jumbled mess of giant, icy mountains? The variety of the surface features has been a big surprise.”
NASA scientists have for the first time been also be able to produce a more accurate size of Pluto, with an estimated diameter of around 1,475 miles.
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