Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Cyrovolcanism on Pluto and Charon

Q21: Will the New Horizons probe find clear evidence of recent (last 100m years) cyrovolcanism on
Neither Pluto nor Charon: 15%
Pluto only: 5%
Charon only: 25%
Both Pluto and Charon: 55%

From the Wikipedia article, "A cryovolcano (colloquially known as an ice volcano) is a volcano that erupts volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane, instead of molten rock".  Cyrovolcanism has been observed on Triton, which is thought to be a (captured) Kuiper Belt Object (like Pluto).  There is some speculation that there might be cyrovolcanism on Pluto and Charon.

There has been some solid (but not conclusive) evidence of cyrovolcanism on Charon.  The evidence seems less clear for Pluto.  Given how similar Pluto and Charon are, I think that evidence will be found on Pluto as well, although I am less certain than I am for Charon.



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