Sentences with phrase «of nitrogen ice»

The results of both calculations suggest a far deeper layer of nitrogen ice than the minimum 500 meters needed for convection to occur, he said.

They also looked at whether craters made by the comets hitting the surface could excavate enough nitrogen — but that would require a very deep layer of nitrogen ice at the surface, which is not proven.

Previous Pluto observations have detected a surface of nitrogen ice with dissolved methane ice dissolved in nitrogen ice.

However, the Purdue team's convection model suggests that the age of the surface of the nitrogen ice fields of the Sputnik Planum region is even younger, around one million years old, he said.

However, within the Sputnik Planum region the icy surface drops into a basin that holds a pool of nitrogen ice.

The new images are intriguing NASA astronomers with views of flows of nitrogen ice spreading from mountains onto flat plains, possible dune regions, and networks of valleys carved into Pluto's surface by as yet unknown materials.

The new images, at resolutions of about 80 meters per pixel, show a striking shoreline, where smooth plains of nitrogen ice from Pluto's «heart» rub up against water ice mountains several kilometers high.

If Pluto were a completely smooth sphere, it would have either a permanent swath of nitrogen ice at the equator or seasonal snow caps at its poles.

The jumbled - up rubble at the base of the ice mountains helps confirm team members» theories that the mountains are, in fact, giant icebergs that have moved around on more plastic layers of nitrogen ice below.

Close - up of Sputnik Planum shows the slowly overturning cells of nitrogen ice.

On Pluto, icebergs floating in a sea of nitrogen ice are key to a possible explanation of the quilted appearance of the Sputnik Planum region of the dwarf planet's surface.

Data reported by NASA's New Horizons New Horizons mission to the Pluto system shows unusual terrain in this region, which features a large deposit of nitrogen ice with a pattern of polygons that are thickest at their centers and dip at their edges.

The convection process is able to occur thanks to the relative structural weakness of the nitrogen ice that composes the plain.

«Within this pool of nitrogen ice, there are mountains of water ice that have collected at the edges of the polygons,» he said.

The recent flyby of Pluto by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft revealed the distant planet to be a surprisingly active world, replete with geologically recent flows of nitrogen ice that may be r...

Neptune's moon, Triton, has geysers of nitrogen spewing through a layer of nitrogen ice.

In the weak sunlight illuminating Pluto, some of the nitrogen ice must vaporise to produce a nitrogen atmosphere around the planet.