{"id":12389,"date":"2016-03-24T17:29:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T21:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12389"},"modified":"2016-03-24T17:31:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T21:31:21","slug":"new-horizons-frozen-nitrogen-lake-spotted-on-the-surface-of-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12389","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons: Frozen nitrogen lake spotted on the surface of Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New Horizons<\/a>\u00a0image\u00a0shows an interesting feature:<\/p>\n

Pluto: On Frozen Pond<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spied several features on Pluto that offer evidence of a time millions or billions of years ago when \u2013 thanks to much higher pressure in Pluto’s atmosphere and warmer conditions on the surface \u2013 liquids might have flowed across and pooled on the surface of the distant world.<\/p>\n

\"Pond[1]\"<\/a>
Image credit: NASA\/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory\/Southwest Research Institute<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>“In addition to this possible former lake, we also see evidence of channels that may also have carried liquids in Pluto’s past,” said Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado\u2014principal investigator of New Horizons and lead author of a scientific paper on the topic submitted to the journal Icarus.<\/p>\n

This feature appears to be a frozen, former lake of liquid nitrogen, located in a mountain range just north of Pluto’s informally named Sputnik Planum. Captured by the New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, the image shows details as small as about 430 feet (130 meters). At its widest point the possible lake appears to be about 20 miles (30 kilometers) across.<\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

See also a recent presentation of New Horizons results so far:\u00a0New Horizons Team Presents Latest Pluto Science Results at Planetary Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New Horizons\u00a0image\u00a0shows an interesting feature: Pluto: On Frozen Pond NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spied several features on Pluto that offer evidence of a time millions or billions of years ago when \u2013 thanks to much higher pressure in Pluto’s atmosphere and warmer conditions on the surface \u2013 liquids might have flowed across and pooled … Continue reading New Horizons: Frozen nitrogen lake spotted on the surface of Pluto<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pluto","category-space-science","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3dP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13780,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=13780","url_meta":{"origin":12389,"position":0},"title":"Video: New Horizons bring you in for a ‘landing’ on Pluto","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In this video, color corrected images from the New Horizons probe are presented in sequence to bring you closer and closer to the surface of Pluto:\u00a0A Colorful 'Landing' on Pluto - New Horizons https:\/\/youtu.be\/xmqDpuDLVYw From the caption: What would it be like to actually land on Pluto? 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