Updated

Updated · Gizmodo · Jul 16

Scientists Find 6 Massive Pluto Landslides in 3 Craters From 2015 New Horizons Images

Updated

Updated · Gizmodo · Jul 16

Scientists Find 6 Massive Pluto Landslides in 3 Craters From 2015 New Horizons Images

Q: What strange property of Pluto's ice allows massive landslides to slide farther than any on Earth?

Pluto’s landslides appear to travel unusually far because much of the mobile ice there is not hard water ice, but volatile ice such as nitrogen, with methane and carbon monoxide mixed in. At Pluto’s extremely low temperatures, that nitrogen ice is still soft enough to deform and flow, giving it a much lower effective friction than rock or ordinary Earth ice. That matters because low-friction material can keep moving much longer after it breaks loose. Researchers studying the New Horizons images found Pluto’s landslides have longer “runout” distances than comparable slides on Earth, which points to this unusually slippery, mobile behavior. The contrast with Pluto’s water ice is important. On Pluto, water ice is so rigid it acts like bedrock and forms mountains, while nitrogen-rich ice behaves more like a slowly flowing geological material. Scientists say that strange combination helps explain why massive landslides on Pluto can slide farther than any seen on Earth.

3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Jul 16

Six massive landslides have been identified on Pluto, marking the first reported evidence of slope failure on the dwarf planet in a study published in Icarus.
The team found the features by reexamining New Horizons' 2015 LORRI images alongside topographic maps, with all six located on the inner rims of three impact craters.
The largest slide covers about 50 square miles, and the others span roughly 1,200 to 1,500 meters in height, leaving crescent-shaped scars and debris deposits on crater floors.
The findings suggest gravity-driven mass movement has helped shape Pluto's icy surface, extending a process already seen on worlds such as Mars, Ceres, Vesta and Pluto's moon Charon.
Researchers say more landslides may remain hidden in the limited flyby data, making future higher-resolution Pluto missions important for mapping the planet's geomorphic history.