An article titled "Spinning Comets can tear themselves apart only to be reborn" at Space.com came out 3 days ago featuring comet 67p.
Scientist have calculated that if jets coming off 67p increased its rotation to less than 7 hours per rotation which they expect it to do, then the two lobes would separate and then eventually rejoin. They think this may be a relatively common occurrence with comets and may explain many of the odd shaped comets. On comets like 67p previous research suggest that comets split every 100 years or so. Halleys comet is also a two lobed comet.
Since I'm always thinking about Pluto it seems reasonable to think this process of separation and rejoining may be occurring with Pluto/Charon. If it is, it could explain a lot about Sputnik Planum's origin, Charon's southern hemisphere having been liquefied, the South Eastern side of Tombaugh Regio without any impacts, Pluto's 120 degree axis tilt along with its current 20 degree axis wobble, the 90 percent reflectance of Nix and the four moons erratic wobble's.
And it would help get rid of this constantly over used figure of everything in the solar system being 4 billion years old. Over the course of 20 years 556 small asteroids have impacted the earths atmosphere. That means Earth is impacted 28 times a year and Pluto's year last 248 earth years. Our solar system is a very currently active place. Why is it so hard to accept Pluto/Charon are currently involved in frequent impacts.
On the north pole of Pluto there are only 3 to 6 impacts that expose tholin below the snow surface. This means the snow is being deposited pretty quickly as it covers all the other impact sites. If Pluto's impact rate is only a fraction of Earths, then the surfaces that are missing impacts like the hardened north western side are cycling through a fluid then frozen phase pretty quickly.
This image shows the north western side Pluto, you can see chunks of ice that were separated from the main block of ice and there are fluid looking channels between them. In this area there are fewer impacts than other area's meaning this northern section of Pluto was liquefied somewhat recently then it froze.
There are a lot of dynamic changes occurring on Pluto and calling it all 4 billion years old just doesn't match the terrain. Some are currently active like all of Tombaugh Regio and some are frozen. The impacts in this scene show there is tholin below the snow (old surface below) but the impacts are covered by snow and they are few in number. There seems to be a cyclical process occurring which may be an example of Pluto and Charon colliding then separating.
This image orientation helps me see how the northern hemisphere of Pluto was once a fluid. The blueish colored northern hemisphere flows right down to the outline edges of the Peri Planitia dried basin and the burp bulge line.
An article titled "Spinning Comets can tear themselves apart only to be reborn" at Space.com came out 3 days ago featuring comet 67p.
Scientist have calculated that if jets coming off 67p increased its rotation to less than 7 hours per rotation which they expect it to do, then the two lobes would separate and then eventually rejoin. They think this may be a relatively common occurrence with comets and may explain many of the odd shaped comets. On comets like 67p previous research suggest that comets split every 100 years or so. Halleys comet is also a two lobed comet.
Since I'm always thinking about Pluto it seems reasonable to think this process of separation and rejoining may be occurring with Pluto/Charon. If it is, it could explain a lot about Sputnik Planum's origin, Charon's southern hemisphere having been liquefied, the South Eastern side of Tombaugh Regio without any impacts, Pluto's 120 degree axis tilt along with its current 20 degree axis wobble, the 90 percent reflectance of Nix and the four moons erratic wobble's.
And it would help get rid of this constantly over used figure of everything in the solar system being 4 billion years old. Over the course of 20 years 556 small asteroids have impacted the earths atmosphere. That means Earth is impacted 28 times a year and Pluto's year last 248 earth years. Our solar system is a very currently active place. Why is it so hard to accept Pluto/Charon are currently involved in frequent impacts.
On the north pole of Pluto there are only 3 to 6 impacts that expose tholin below the snow surface. This means the snow is being deposited pretty quickly as it covers all the other impact sites. If Pluto's impact rate is only a fraction of Earths, then the surfaces that are missing impacts like the hardened north western side are cycling through a fluid then frozen phase pretty quickly.
This image shows the north western side Pluto, you can see chunks of ice that were separated from the main block of ice and there are fluid looking channels between them. In this area there are fewer impacts than other area's meaning this northern section of Pluto was liquefied somewhat recently then it froze.
There are a lot of dynamic changes occurring on Pluto and calling it all 4 billion years old just doesn't match the terrain. Some are currently active like all of Tombaugh Regio and some are frozen. The impacts in this scene show there is tholin below the snow (old surface below) but the impacts are covered by snow and they are few in number. There seems to be a cyclical process occurring which may be an example of Pluto and Charon colliding then separating.
This image orientation helps me see how the northern hemisphere of Pluto was once a fluid. The blueish colored northern hemisphere flows right down to the outline edges of the Peri Planitia dried basin and the burp bulge line.
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