As the photo of Pluto’s icy surface to indicates, there is an object seemingly making its way towards the north, possibly to a fork in the road. One of NASA’s Reconnaissance Imaging from the New Horizon’s spacecraft caught this picture during its flyby in July of last year.
So, let’s explore the possibilities. The picture could be of a snail-like creature out for a walk. (One that breaths an atmosphere of 90% Nitrogen, and 10% other which includes Methane.) It could also be a dirty block of ice "floating" on the solid nitrogen surface, which is denser than the object. OR perhaps some garbage tossed by the planets current residents while quickly running to the side of the planet not in view to the New Horizons camera. I have to admit that the first one is tempting and in some ways I can believe that on as if we explain everything away each time, one of them we are going to be wrong. Still, logic dictates the dirty block of ice – sorry!
Scientists were (and are) already intrigued by the bright methane ices condensed on the Viking Terra Area (located on Mars) and specifically their crater rims; the methane and nitrogen together in the Pluto’s atmosphere give way to the dark red tholins -a small soot-like particle that layers the steep cliffs and crater walls. Basically it is the icy heart of this planet known as Pluto. So it is obvious that filled with this unrequited interest of its creators, New Horizons took lots of photos, extended to include the area to the east known as Sputnik Planum. One of these photos showed the supposed alien-snail like creature.
Because ice is common in this region, an ice born of methane and nitrogen with a soot like particle even more so, you have a dirty piece of ice with a shape similar to a snail.
So why are there time lapsed photos showing it moving at a snail’s pace across the plains? Easy – the material and its particles are known to either
Ride along with the ice either below the surface or pushed by Pluto’s winds.
Pluto atmosphere is not the same as the air we have here on Earth, stil Pluto’s thin envelope of gases do surround the far away dwarf planet for part of its orbit around the Sun.
The orbit of Pluto is not a perfect circle but is rather elliptical – and so it is both closer and farther away at various points in its orbit. While it is at its nearest position to the Sun, the surface of solid nitrogen heats up enough that it sublimates – changes directly from a solid to a gas. Of course as Pluto follows its orbit farther from the Sun, it cools down, the atmosphere freezes and ice forms on the surface of Pluto.
A bit of information – Pluto is losing its atmosphere. It doesn’t have the gravity a larger planet might and so it is losing its atmosphere as it doesn’t have the gravity necessary to hold on to it. This is one of the main reasons that NASA sent its New Horizons spacecraft toward Pluto as NASA wanted to observe what may not be there much longer!
Back to the snail-like creature. Convection cells are responsible for the blowing of wind on Earth. Now normally when a fluid is warmed, it loses its density and is forced into a region with greater density. (For Example- macaroni can rise and sink in a boiling pot of water because of the phenomenon of convection cells.) Now take that scientific thought and apply to the the snail-like object – it becomes most likely a dirty block of ice "floating" on the solid nitrogen surface, which is denser than the object. Because of the difference in density, the icy object has been pulled to the edge of a "convection cell." End of story – SORRY!
to the mysterious snail-like object or a piece of dirty ice?
As the photo of Pluto’s icy surface to indicates, there is an object seemingly making its way towards the north, possibly to a fork in the road. One of NASA’s Reconnaissance Imaging from the New Horizon’s spacecraft caught this picture during its flyby in July of last year.
So, let’s explore the possibilities. The picture could be of a snail-like creature out for a walk. (One that breaths an atmosphere of 90% Nitrogen, and 10% other which includes Methane.) It could also be a dirty block of ice "floating" on the solid nitrogen surface, which is denser than the object. OR perhaps some garbage tossed by the planets current residents while quickly running to the side of the planet not in view to the New Horizons camera. I have to admit that the first one is tempting and in some ways I can believe that on as if we explain everything away each time, one of them we are going to be wrong. Still, logic dictates the dirty block of ice – sorry!
Scientists were (and are) already intrigued by the bright methane ices condensed on the Viking Terra Area (located on Mars) and specifically their crater rims; the methane and nitrogen together in the Pluto’s atmosphere give way to the dark red tholins -a small soot-like particle that layers the steep cliffs and crater walls. Basically it is the icy heart of this planet known as Pluto. So it is obvious that filled with this unrequited interest of its creators, New Horizons took lots of photos, extended to include the area to the east known as Sputnik Planum. One of these photos showed the supposed alien-snail like creature.
Because ice is common in this region, an ice born of methane and nitrogen with a soot like particle even more so, you have a dirty piece of ice with a shape similar to a snail.
So why are there time lapsed photos showing it moving at a snail’s pace across the plains? Easy – the material and its particles are known to either
Ride along with the ice either below the surface or pushed by Pluto’s winds.
Pluto atmosphere is not the same as the air we have here on Earth, stil Pluto’s thin envelope of gases do surround the far away dwarf planet for part of its orbit around the Sun.
The orbit of Pluto is not a perfect circle but is rather elliptical – and so it is both closer and farther away at various points in its orbit. While it is at its nearest position to the Sun, the surface of solid nitrogen heats up enough that it sublimates – changes directly from a solid to a gas. Of course as Pluto follows its orbit farther from the Sun, it cools down, the atmosphere freezes and ice forms on the surface of Pluto.
A bit of information – Pluto is losing its atmosphere. It doesn’t have the gravity a larger planet might and so it is losing its atmosphere as it doesn’t have the gravity necessary to hold on to it. This is one of the main reasons that NASA sent its New Horizons spacecraft toward Pluto as NASA wanted to observe what may not be there much longer!
Back to the snail-like creature. Convection cells are responsible for the blowing of wind on Earth. Now normally when a fluid is warmed, it loses its density and is forced into a region with greater density. (For Example- macaroni can rise and sink in a boiling pot of water because of the phenomenon of convection cells.) Now take that scientific thought and apply to the the snail-like object – it becomes most likely a dirty block of ice "floating" on the solid nitrogen surface, which is denser than the object. Because of the difference in density, the icy object has been pulled to the edge of a "convection cell." End of story – SORRY!
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