The Mountains of Pluto are Snowcapped, but Not for the Same Reasons as on Earth
Phoenix666 writes:
The mountains of Pluto are snowcapped, but not for the same reasons as on Earth:
In 2015, the New Horizons space probe discovered spectacular snowcapped mountains on Pluto, which are strikingly similar to mountains on Earth.
[...] An international team led by CNRS scientists1 conducted this exploration. They first determined that the "snow" on Pluto's mountains actually consists of frozen methane, with traces of this gas being present in Pluto's atmosphere, just like water vapor on Earth. To understand how the same landscape could be produced in such different conditions, they used a climate model for the dwarf planet, which revealed that due to its particular dynamics, Pluto's atmosphere is rich in gaseous methane at altitudes.
[...] it is only at the peaks of mountains [...] that the air contains enough methane for it to condense.
The homologous structures are striking.
Journal Reference:
Tanguy Bertrand, Francois Forget, Bernard Schmitt, et al. Equatorial mountains on Pluto are covered by methane frosts resulting from a unique atmospheric process [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18845-3)
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