Comments on: The Mountains of Pluto https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/ Brian Koberlein Tue, 19 Feb 2019 19:13:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3 By: Aldor https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-3160 Tue, 20 Oct 2015 08:01:38 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-3160 Because of tidal locking.

]]> By: Tim Bradshaw https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2572 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:31:09 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2572 Radioactivity is, I think, problematic because it’s fairly small and surface-to-volume gets you. There was some theorising about latent heat from a large ocean slowly freezing which could allow it to retain heat for much longer than you expect.

It’s all pretty astonishing I think.

]]> By: Tim Bradshaw https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2571 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:28:42 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2571 Yes, but it is tidally-locked to the large one (Charon), so there’s no energy being dumped into the system that way.

]]> By: richk https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2570 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 15:09:06 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2570 where/did/the/water/come/from?

]]> By: tobalt https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2567 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 06:44:51 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2567 If it contained stuff like liquid methane in its mantle could that explain the tectonics? For this thered be no special heat source needed.

]]> By: Amir https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2566 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 05:49:48 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2566 How can a radioactive heat source be explained? Is it possible that the body was created in the inner part of the solar system and was flung out to the Kuiper belt some time later but before its had time to evaporate?

]]> By: Dave Hill https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2565 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 04:53:09 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2565 Why wouldn’t Charon — a moon so large that the orbital pivot point between it and Pluto is outside of Pluto itself — be producing “tidal forces”?

]]> By: Andy Norman https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2563 Thu, 16 Jul 2015 02:07:47 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2563 The mission scientists seem to be hesitant to speculate about the heat source. Isn’t Pluto too small to retain heat from it’s formation? Does that mean it must have a radioactive heat source? Any other ideas?

]]> By: Matt McIrvin https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2560 Wed, 15 Jul 2015 23:22:39 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2560 Here is a splendid picture of Charon, just received today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)#/media/File:Charon_by_New_Horizons_on_14_July_2015.png

There was also a picture of Hydra, which is an elongated, irregular object, but the picture was only a few pixels wide.

]]> By: Brian Koberlein https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2558 Wed, 15 Jul 2015 23:11:01 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2558 Several. The largest is Charon, but there is also Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.

]]> By: Marie Case https://briankoberlein.com/2015/07/15/the-mountains-of-pluto/#comment-2557 Wed, 15 Jul 2015 23:03:34 +0000 https://briankoberlein.com/?p=4986#comment-2557 Does Pluto have a moon?

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