New research led by Tanguy Bertrand, astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California, has shed light on how the famous heart-shaped frozen nitrogen plane of the dwarf planet Pluto, controls winds in its thin atmosphere, leading to large discolorations on its shiny surface.
The experts used information gathered by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its close pass with Pluto in 2015, during which the space probe captured an impressive array of images and data about the distant alien world.
From a distance, back in 2015, the structure resembled a large cartoon heart. Upon closer inspection, the great basin was revealed to be a geological wonder. That basin is known as Sputnik Planitia . The basin makes up the “left lobe” of the heart, while the right side is home to nitrogen glaciers and the highlands.
Now, new research shows that Pluto’s famous heart-shaped structure, called Tombaugh Regio (named after astronomer Clybe Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930), is the one that governs its atmospheric circulation. When the “frozen heart” “beats”, it controls the Plutonian wind.
Pluto’s atmosphere is about 100,000 times thinner than Earth’s
Discovering how Pluto’s atmosphere behaves provides scientists with yet another place to compare information with our own planet, identifying similar and distinctive features between Earth and a dwarf planet billions of miles away.
The research, which is based on advanced computer modeling, has yielded more insight into how this unusual landscape interacts with its surroundings. They took data on Pluto’s ice topography and distribution gathered by New Horizons, and ran computer simulations on possible weather cycles to discover how circulating gas could affect the characteristics of its surface.
Thus nitrogen, a gas also found in the air on Earth, comprises most of Pluto’s thin atmosphere, along with carbon monoxide and methane. Frozen nitrogen also covers part of Pluto’s surface in a heart shape. During the day, a thin layer of this nitrogen ice heats up and turns into steam. At night, the steam descends, settles, and ice forms . Each hot / cold sequence is like a heartbeat; With each periodic evaporation and resettlement of material, the resulting atmospheric disturbance pumps nitrogen winds across the planet’s surface (westerly winds occur approximately 40 kilometers above the surface).
“This highlights the fact that Pluto’s atmosphere and winds, even if the density of the atmosphere is very low, can affect the surface,” said Bertrand, leader of the work in the Journal of Geophysical Research .
Scientists believe that if the winds were moving in a different direction, Pluto could be unrecognizable . “Sputnik Planitia may be as important to Pluto’s climate as the ocean is to Earth’s climate,” Bertrand said.
Reference: T. Bertrand, F. Forget, O. White, B. Schmitt, SA Stern, HA Weaver, LA Young, K. Ennico, CB Olkin. Pluto’s beating heart regulates the atmospheric circulation: results from high resolution and multi-year numerical climate simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2020; DOI: 10.1029 / 2019JE006120
