(ORDO NEWS) — In front of you are the dunes on the surface of Pluto , which are located next to the mountains surrounding the Sputnik Plain, (an ice sheet with an average diameter of 1,492 kilometers).
These natural formations, measured in decades or centuries (no mistake), tell us that Pluto’s geology and atmosphere are much more dynamic than previously thought.
In addition, it is safe to say that winds blow on Pluto, which are involved in the formation of the landscape.
The dunes of Pluto are incredibly young formations from a geological point of view, consisting of particles of methane ice the size of a grain of sand. By comparison, Martian dunes can take thousands or even millions of years to form.
On Earth, such dunes could be the product of a process known as “eolian transport of material”; winds move sediment across a solid surface, causing it to crumble, roll, bounce, fall, and stick together again.
However, the winds on Pluto by themselves are not strong enough to allow aeolian transport to occur.
It is likely that sublimation is responsible for the appearance of numerous dunes, when, under certain conditions, ice immediately turns into gas, bypassing the liquid phase and boiling, which leads to the rise and movement of particles.
This greatly simplifies the work of the wind, which descends from the tops of nearby mountains and completes the formation of methane-rich dunes.
Pluto is a little-studied world, whose unimaginable distance from the Sun did not prevent it from remaining “alive” and dynamically changing. This dwarf planet needs a separate mission, the launch of which is only in the plans of NASA.
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