New photos of Pluto reveal strange potholes. Photo by NASA/Lillian Gipson
BALTIMORE, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- New images from NASA's New Horizons mission reveal a region of Pluto's surface marked by hundreds of potholes. The pockmarked terrain is just another example of the dwarf planet's remarkable geological diversity.
The scattered holes look like footprints in the snow, or a log infested by woodworms. Some of the depressions measure nearly 1,000 feet wide and a few hundred feet deep. The surrounding surface is composed of nitrogen ice and other solids, and scientists say the holes are likely caused by sublimation of these elements.
Sublimation is the transition from solid to gas. Because Pluto features so little atmospheric and gravitational pressure, when its ices are heated they often skip the liquid phase and vaporize directly.
While this logic may explain the pitted nature of Pluto's Sputnik Planum, researchers can't say exactly why the holes appear in this particular region and not elsewhere.
"Pluto is weird, in a good way," Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist, said in a press release. "The pits, and the way they're aligned, provide clues about the ice flow and the exchange of volatiles between the surface and atmosphere, and the science team is working hard to understand what physical processes are at play here."
The new details add to Pluto's reputation is one of the most contrasting surfaces in the solar system.
"Pluto displays a surprisingly wide variety of geological landforms, including those resulting from glaciological and surface -- atmosphere interactions as well as impact, tectonic, possible cryovolcanic, and mass-wasting processes," researchers wrote in a paper summarizing this summer's New Horizons findings.
