by MarkBour » Tue Sep 01, 2015 6:00 am
The Disney character Pluto understands how it feels to be demoted. Initially considered for a leading role, he was eventually relegated to second class status, being cast inexplicably as a pet of a mouse (!?)
On a more serious note, there's a lovely page at:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Participate/lea ... Atmosphere . Based on this information, I am persuaded that the nitrogen ice of Tombaugh Regio ("the dog in the dwarf") is potentially quite thick, like a major ice sheet on Earth would be, though it probably does not move glacially. Some of the mountains of Hillary Montes may be taller than what we can see, if measured from their true base which might be below thick ice. And the large crater feature mentioned above, Elliott crater, (for which a decent name might have been "the eye of Cthulhu") is interesting, because its shape may have made it a favored location for nitrogen ice condensation, and I think I can see a rather thick deposit of said ice within it, which is giving it the dark-light-dark appearance between the rim, the ice, and the crater's central peak.
We could put an end to the debate over Pluto's status by knocking it into a more elliptical orbit, so it came in close to the Sun. Based on the material there, I'm thinking it would be the comet to end all comets.
The Disney character Pluto understands how it feels to be demoted. Initially considered for a leading role, he was eventually relegated to second class status, being cast inexplicably as a pet of a mouse (!?)
On a more serious note, there's a lovely page at: [url]http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Participate/learn/What-We-Know.php?link=Plutos-Atmosphere[/url] . Based on this information, I am persuaded that the nitrogen ice of Tombaugh Regio ("the dog in the dwarf") is potentially quite thick, like a major ice sheet on Earth would be, though it probably does not move glacially. Some of the mountains of Hillary Montes may be taller than what we can see, if measured from their true base which might be below thick ice. And the large crater feature mentioned above, Elliott crater, (for which a decent name might have been "the eye of Cthulhu") is interesting, because its shape may have made it a favored location for nitrogen ice condensation, and I think I can see a rather thick deposit of said ice within it, which is giving it the dark-light-dark appearance between the rim, the ice, and the crater's central peak.
[attachment=0]PlutoOnPluto.png[/attachment]
We could put an end to the debate over Pluto's status by knocking it into a more elliptical orbit, so it came in close to the Sun. Based on the material there, I'm thinking it would be the comet to end all comets.