Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to The Pluto Wow, now in Living Color!

#$%&*@! AMAZING

By all means, click on that last one and enjoy the wonder in detail.

Some quick comments: The snakeskin reminds me somewhat of what we call "tear-pants weathering" in limestone. In arid environments, limestone outcrops form a surface that will rip your pants if you sit on it. Like micro karst topography. It's formed by dissolution of the limestone. But this is not limestone. It has been speculated that this is the result of sublimation and I agree.A mixture of ice and rock that is being deferentially weathered/eroded by sublimation. Beautiful.

The Ice Plain is fantastic - all kinds of stuff going on there. Have a close look at the cracks. There is often a ridge running down the middle suggesting that the cracks are getting filled in by new ice. Which would mean that the cracks are opening like a mid-ocean ridge and expanding. Or just the opposite and they are the result of collision and the central ridge is a buckle.

Pattern-wise, the polygonal structure bring desiccation structures to mind, like mud cracks. In this case it would again be a loss of material due to sublimation. The surface shrinks, causing cracks, which fill in with new ice from below. The cracks would also focus the location of ice volcanos.

However, the pattern also reminds me of the tops of many convection current cells, like the pattern on the top of warm soup. If so, the whole plain is upward (and downward) oozing ice with a certain amount sublimating into space. The darker areas that sit in the cracks would be formed by the accumulation of material that doesn't sink back down and stays on the surface.

The obvious flow patterns at the margins might be this up welling ice flowing out at the edge of a hole, like an overflowing bathtub.

That's all for today's arm waving. Oh, and by ice, y'all know that I mean a mixture of frozen gasses, yeah?

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