Monday, January 11, 2016

New high resolution NASA images show Pluto's 'lava lamp' landscape



This region of Pluto’s surface is separated into huge cells, some 10 to 25 miles wide (16 to 40 kilometers). These areas are separated by ridged edges that show up as furrows in the landscape when the Sun’s rays hit them at a low angle. Scientist believe that this patterning is created by convection in the nitrogen-dominated ice. Great globules of solid nitrogen are thought to be warmed by Pluto’s “modest internal heat” before rising up to the surface, cooling, and sinking back down again. “This part of Pluto is…




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New high resolution NASA images show Pluto"s "lava lamp" landscape

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