Pluto images from the New Horizons' Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) instrument show large hills of water ice, up to several kilometers across, floating on a sea of nitrogen ice.
Because water ice is less dense than nitrogen-dominated ice, scientists believe these water ice hills are floating in a sea of frozen nitrogen and move over time like icebergs in Earth's Arctic Ocean. The hills are likely fragments of the rugged uplands that have broken away and are being carried by the nitrogen glaciers into Sputnik Planum.
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Pluto's Mysterious, Floating Hills
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(Score: 1) by cyberthanasis on Saturday February 06 2016, @03:57PM
Fascinating. It seems that each (dwarf) planet is nothing like the others. We are still at the beginning of space exploration. Let's hope that we will continue to explore space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 06 2016, @08:24PM
The Universe is an utterly crazy, incomprehensible place. Ice bergs of nitrogen? Raining helium? And in the other direction, a raging fire that blows atoms apart. All at distances that preclude any hope of visiting - and these are our closest neighbors. Fuggetaboutit.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday February 07 2016, @03:28PM
Well, the distances only preclude visiting with current technology. Once we manage something like a 1g ion drive, Neptune is only a few weeks away. We're still a ways away from that, but have some promising prototypes in the lab, perhaps they'll be ready by the time we have nuclear reactors capable of powering them for prolonged periods.