Scientists have claimed that they have solved the mystery related to the frozen ocean of Pluto. A rover of NASA captured several months ago some distant pictures of the icy dwarf planet. Those images have thrilled the curiosity and fueled the enthusiasm of some specialists after revealing more about the surface of this planet. Apparently, there was spotted a heart-like shape on the world’s surface. It is evident that many suspicious people argued that the pictures were Photoshopped.
- Scientists have analyzed a heart-shaped visual from Pluto’s surface.
- This strange shape of the surface was related to the frozen ocean of the dwarf planet.
Nevertheless, researchers who participated in the study were sure that they were about to reveal something important. They have continued their investigation hoping they will unveil significant data worth their effort. After a few months, there were already a lot of speculations regarding the heart-shaped visual which was discovered.
Some experts thought that this symbol has formed in a similar way to ice carvings and weird forms on the moon of Pluto. When scientists revealed the Charon, one of the moons of Pluto, they have unveiled it hosts a frozen ocean. What is more, almost the entire surface of this moon is composed of ice. Some specialists argued that they have noticed how heat propagated broad enough to fuel the melting process of a water body. There were several cooling and heating cycles which caused the formation of a subsurface water body.
Researchers did not know that the moon of Pluto could host so many types of topography. Ross Beyer, who is an affiliate of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team from the SETI Institute, has commented upon the new findings regarding Charon. The heart-like shape revealed upon the surface of Pluto was detected last year during a spaceship flyby. This frozen region is situated at the different poll of Charon.
The composition of the formation contains a mixture of gasses like nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide. The led author of the study who is also a professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, Douglas Hamilton, has argued that there is more data about the frozen heart of Pluto. He together with his team from New Horizons has thought that this strange formation which depicted a heart could have appeared there as the result of Pluto’s revolution at a faster velocity compared to nowadays.
Moreover, they believe that the formation of this heart-shaped visual was not due to a deep impact from a celestial object. Hamilton believes that there is a subsurface ocean which was once closer to the northern pole of the dwarf planet. The fluctuations of temperatures have produced melting and freezing processes of the surface of the globe. After a while these repeated operations led to albedo effect, meaning ice attracted more ice, transforming into a frozen heart-like surface.
Image courtesy of: wikipedia
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