Sentences with phrase «volatile ices»

Although Pluto's durable H2O ice is probably not active on its own, it appears to be sculpted in a variety of ways through the action of volatile ices of N2 and CO..

«My gut feeling is that we will excavate a crater, get down to where there is a lot more volatile ice than near the surface, and create a new active area that will persist for months,» he says.

«The movement of volatile ices across [Pluto's] surface is continually resurfacing the planet and controlling its orientation — past, present and future.

They theorise that «Oumuamua formed within the ice line of its star, close enough to be mostly rock and not volatile ices.

CAESAR would also do something unprecedented, Squyres said, by not just sampling a comet, but capturing both dust and volatile ices from its interior.

Infrared observations of this region show volatile ices including N2 and CO..

Much of this activity is enabled by the existence of volatile ices such as N2 and CO that are easily mobilized even at the extremely low temperatures prevalent on Pluto's surface, around 40 K.

At upper right, volatile ices filling the informally named Sputnik Planum have modified the surface, creating a chaos - like array of blocky mountains.

Pluto and Charon have surfaces dominated by volatile ices, with large variations in color and albedo.

Unlike most smaller Kuiper belt objects, these Pluto - sized bodies are mostly round, likely internally differentiated with the ice and rock separated, and contain frozen volatile ices, like nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane, in varying amounts on their evolving surfaces.

The discovery points to an internal heat source that, at some point in Pluto's past, drove the melting of interior reservoirs of volatile ices, such as nitrogen and methane, that then erupted at the surface.

They theorise that 1I /» Oumuamua formed close enough to its star to be made mostly from rock rather than volatile ices.

It also suggests that the cryovolcanoes were a way for Pluto to periodically rejuvenate surface supplies of these volatile ices, which sublimate into the thin atmosphere and are eventually lost to space.

Volatile ice occupies a few nearby deep craters, and in some areas the volatile ice is pocked with arrays of small sublimation pits.

Researchers said this is influenced by the dwarf planet's water ice and volatile ices.