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Planetary Radio • Oct 30, 2024

Splat or subsurface ocean? The mysterious positioning of Pluto’s heart

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On This Episode

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Adeene Denton

Research Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona

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Bruce Betts

Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society

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Sarah Al-Ahmed

Planetary Radio Host and Producer for The Planetary Society

This week, we investigate the mysteries of Pluto's iconic heart-shaped feature. We explore recent research on the origins of the Sputnik Planitia region and what it can tell us about whether or not the dwarf planet has a subsurface ocean. Our guest, Adeene Denton from the University of Arizona, discusses her team's work investigating oblique impact basins, or "splats," and their implications for planetary formation. Then Bruce Betts, chief scientist at The Planetary Society, joins host Sarah Al-Ahmed for a roundup of the most significant impacts in our Solar System in What's Up.

True Colors of Pluto
True Colors of Pluto This is the most accurate natural color image of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. The diversity of geologic landforms on Pluto’s surface rivals that of Mars.Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
'Snakeskin' terrain on Pluto
'Snakeskin' terrain on Pluto In this extended color image of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, rounded and bizarrely textured mountains, informally named the Tartarus Dorsa, rise up along Pluto's day-night terminator and show intricate but puzzling patterns of blue-gray ridges and reddish material in between. This view, roughly 530 kilometers across, combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14, 2015. It shows a region to the east of Tombaugh regio where low hills are covered with blade-like surface features.Image: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
Pluto's haze
Pluto's haze This image of haze layers above Pluto’s limb was taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. About 20 haze layers are seen; the layers have been found to typically extend horizontally over hundreds of kilometers, but are not strictly parallel to the surface. For example, scientists note a haze layer about 5 kilometers above the surface (lower left area of the image), which descends to the surface at the right.Image: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
Pluto: New Horizons vs. Hubble
Pluto: New Horizons vs. Hubble A comparison between images of Pluto obtained by New Horizons by direct imaging and the Hubble Space Telescope by lightcurve reconstruction.Image: NASA; picture combined and labeled by S. Hariri

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