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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 24 2020, @09:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the Mickey-Mouse-conclusion? dept.

Evidence supports 'hot start' scenario and early ocean formation on Pluto (SD)

The accretion of new material during Pluto's formation may have generated enough heat to create a liquid ocean that has persisted beneath an icy crust to the present day, despite the dwarf planet's orbit far from the sun in the cold outer reaches of the solar system.

This "hot start" scenario, presented in a paper published June 22 in Nature Geoscience [DOI: 10.1038/s41561-020-0595-0] [DX], contrasts with the traditional view of Pluto's origins as a ball of frozen ice and rock in which radioactive decay could have eventually generated enough heat to melt the ice and form a subsurface ocean.

[...] The researchers calculated that if Pluto formed over a period of less that 30,000 years, then it would have started out hot. If, instead, accretion took place over a few million years, a hot start would only be possible if large impactors buried their energy deep beneath the surface.

The new findings imply that other large Kuiper belt objects probably also started out hot and could have had early oceans. These oceans could persist to the present day in the largest objects, such as the dwarf planets Eris and Makemake.

Previously:
Pluto's 'Heart' Sheds Light On Possible Buried Ocean
Subsurface Ocean Could Explain Pluto's "Heart" Feature Aligning with Charon
Pluto Has an Underground Ocean Kept Warm by a Layer of Gassy Ice


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @10:13PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @10:13PM (#1012176)

    Must be a pretty big rock if it's on the other side of the universe. The telescope to see it must be fucking gargantuan.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @11:09PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @11:09PM (#1012189)

    Pay no mind. Probably a Republican anti-vax geocentric flat-earther, whose concept of distance is as small as the Precedent's hands.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by RandomFactor on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:27AM (5 children)

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:27AM (#1012218) Journal

      https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/childhood-vaccination-programs-should-be-exempt-political-bias [precisionvaccinations.com]
       
      "In 2015, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 2 thousand adults which concluded about 12 percent of liberals and 10 percent of conservatives believed that childhood vaccines are unsafe."
       
      Anti-Vaxx sentiment is a very weak indicator of political affiliation.

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:44AM (3 children)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:44AM (#1012224)

        We do have an A/C who pushes flat earth and anti-vaxx sentiments occasionally, as well as what might be termed "conservative" views.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:55AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:55AM (#1012229)

          I'd guess that being anti-vax correlates well with
          a. Parents of children who have some condition which someone claimed could be caused by vaccines
          b. Nutjobs
          No reason to look for a partisan bent, denial and crazy exist everywhere.

        • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:42AM (1 child)

          by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:42AM (#1012268) Journal

          "Flat-earthers are evenly distributed across the political aisle" [insider.com]
           
          It's been a thing for millennia to associate groups with differing political views with the dumb, ivory tower, uneducated, never worked a real job, morally bankrupt, etc. The whole process starts with a fallacy, assuming because some (large or small) percentage of Group X has some attribute therefore that attribute applies to all in Group X. It is then possible to denigrate and dismiss whatever individual's view is undesirable to the one engaging in the fallacy because they are in Group X.

          --
          В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
          • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:52AM

            by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:52AM (#1012274)

            I can accept that, but was trying to make the point that our flat earther seems to be on the conservative side.

            Political views aside, flat earth is a stupid position to take, as is being anti-vaxx.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @01:59AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @01:59AM (#1012254)

        Anti-Vaxx sentiment is a very weak indicator of political affiliation.

        On the other hand, it's a very strong indicator of ignorance.