Strange Pluto
Jan. 4th, 2017 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stickmakerI wonder what some of the more flamboyant writers of the golden age of SF
would have made of what we now know about Pluto. Sputnik Planitia is a slowly
simmering ocean of nitrogen slush, with giant convection cells driven by heat
from somewhere inside Pluto. One theory is that this heat is a result of the latent
heat of fusion released as the water beneath the crust slowly freezes from the
outside in. That likely would have intrigued chemist Dr. E. E. Smith.
Or is there enough differentiation for radioactive materials in the core to be
the source? Most likely there's some combination of factors involved.
would have made of what we now know about Pluto. Sputnik Planitia is a slowly
simmering ocean of nitrogen slush, with giant convection cells driven by heat
from somewhere inside Pluto. One theory is that this heat is a result of the latent
heat of fusion released as the water beneath the crust slowly freezes from the
outside in. That likely would have intrigued chemist Dr. E. E. Smith.
Or is there enough differentiation for radioactive materials in the core to be
the source? Most likely there's some combination of factors involved.
