Sentences with phrase «solid nitrogen ice»

Using computer models, New Horizons team members have been able to determine the depth of the layer of solid nitrogen ice within Pluto's distinctive «heart» feature — a large plain informally known as Sputnik Planum — and how fast that ice is flowing.

Not exact matches

On Pluto, a slurry of nitrogen and water ice melted by subsurface heat stands in for lava, the team suggests, freezing solid once it is exposed at the surface.

There, nitrogen and other «volatile» gases freeze solid in the cryogenic conditions, and water turns to rock - hard ice.

Both water and nitrogen are solids at Pluto's temperatures, but the nitrogen ice is structurally weak and has a low viscosity that allows it to deform and flow like a fluid, while the water ice has a very high viscosity and can form tall, hard mountains, Trowbridge said.

Once thought to be a relatively inactive world, being so bitterly cold and far from the Sun, Pluto has been shown to be more geologically active than anticipated, with mountains of solid water ice, canyons, unusual pits, and large, slowly moving glaciers of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide ices.

Finally, we use our derived NH3 abundances in combination with previously published abundances of other solid N - bearing species to find that up to 10 - 20 % of nitrogen is locked up in known ices.