Sentences with phrase «icy mantle»

There is evidence that Ceres's icy mantle was once a watery subterranean ocean, and there are hints that this liquid may remain even today.

The missing chunk could be due to a giant impact, smashing away part of KBO's icy mantle, or it could mean Quaoar is actually a «contact binary,» consisting of two more - or-less spherical bodies that touch each other.

«We're not sure whether these stars are holding onto reservoirs of gas much longer than expected, or whether there's a sort of «last gasp» of second - generation gas produced by collisions of comets or evaporation from the icy mantles of dust grains,» said Meredith Hughes, an astronomer at Wesleyan University and coauthor of the study.

Some scientists believe the dwarf planet harbored a subsurface ocean in the past and liquid water may still be lurking under its icy mantle.

They modelled more complex bodies than have been tried before: rather than just a homogeneous ball, they included more realistic objects with a hard, rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle.

The rest of the icy mantle was flung into the Kuiper belt and formed the two moons (Hiʻiaka and Namaka) orbiting Haumea.