Sentences with phrase «cells of nitrogen ice»
Close - up of Sputnik Planum shows the slowly overturning cells of nitrogen ice.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/ Not exact matches
McKinnon and colleagues believe the pattern of these cells stems from the slow thermal convection of the nitrogen - dominated ices that fill Sputnik Planum.
Images of the alien landscape obtained by New Horizons revealed that the surface of Sputnik Planitia is divided into cell - like formations composed of nitrogen - rich ice.
Through a process known as convection, cooler nitrogen ice located in the middle of the cells falls away, and is replaced by a rising globule of (relatively) warm material, which has been heated by Pluto's feeble interior heat source.