MIAMI. The scientists found smooth and icy plains Pluto’s surface thanks to the images released Friday from a NASA probe that flew over the dwarf planet this week.
The plains are north of the icy mountains of Pluto and left central area of the stain with heart shaped NASA called it Tombaugh Region or Region Tombaugh. The name honors Clyde Tombaugh , who discovered the celestial body in 1930. The area is full of depressions like mud cracks frozen on Earth.
Despite that Pluto resides in the Kuiper Belt, a chaotic area of the solar system that has been described by scientists as a shooting area of cosmic debris, no craters at first sight. NASA estimates that the plain is no more than 100 million years and that Pluto is still taking shape through geological processes that are still active. But what are these processes is still a mystery.
“This land is not easy to explain,” said Jeff Moore , team leader of geology, geophysics and images of downtown NASA Ames Research in Moffett Field, California (west). They are considering two theories. Perhaps the plains were formed by the contraction of surface materials, similar to what happens when the mud dries so, NASA said. Alternatively they have been formed by a process called convection, in which some kind of heat from the interior of Pluto would form a layer of carbon monoxide, methane and nitrogen from the surface.
Probe New Horizons NASA Pluto passed close Tuesday. It is the first time in history that the distant dwarf planet is explored. The ship driven by nuclear power, traveled almost ten years and 4,800 million kilometers to reach Pluto. Now it is plunging deeper into the Kuiper Belt.
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