Photo: NASA
Scientists have identified the first known landslides on Pluto using images captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 flyby, providing new evidence that the dwarf planet remains geologically active over long timescales, according to Space.com.
A team led by geologist Marco Emanuele DiSchenza analyzed high-resolution images from the spacecraft's Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and identified six landslides on the inner walls of three impact craters near the western edge of Sputnik Planitia, the vast basin that forms Pluto's heart-shaped feature.
The landslides left debris deposits stretching between 10.1 and 14.5 kilometers across crater floors. The largest covered about 130 square kilometers, while one landslide in Coughlin Crater extended for 2.2 kilometers and may have been triggered by a nearby secondary impact.
Researchers say the unusually long runout distances make Pluto's landslides the most mobile known in the Solar System. They attribute this to the dwarf planet's weak gravity and the low friction of its icy debris.
While landslides have previously been observed on Mars, Ceres and Pluto's moon Charon, this is the first evidence of the phenomenon on Pluto itself.
The exact trigger remains uncertain. Scientists suggest seasonal temperature changes may create thermal stresses in Pluto's surface ice, causing nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ice to sublimate and re-condense, gradually destabilizing steep crater walls. Another possibility is that some landslides were initiated by meteor impacts.
