For many years, Pluto seemed to scientists to be just a block of ice. However, they have always been attracted by the giant ice structures, the formation of which remained shrouded in mystery for a long time.
Scientists are now suggesting that the veil of mystery over Pluto's tall icy ridges has lifted slightly, giving them a glimpse of their wondrous formation.
Mysterious glaciers
In 2015, when the New Horizons space station flew past Pluto as part of NASA's New Frontiers program, scientists discovered amazing structures of icy methane rising high above the dwarf planet's equator. Their height matches the height of the average New York skyscraper.
Scientists are extremely puzzled by such strange structures. Instead of freezing on Pluto's surface in the form of an ordinary ice sheet, methane forms jagged and high ridges. Why is it this way?
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Difficult climate
The answer lies in the difficult climate of the distant dwarf planet: it turned out to be much more complex and dynamic than astrophysicists assumed.
It turns out Pluto is not always a cold block of ice and rock. Periodically, the planet heats up and then cools down, this process repeats over and over again over millions of years. Pluto's warming process allows methane not only to freeze on the surface, but to form strange ice ridges. This process is called sublimation, when the snow turns into steam without touching the surface of the planet.
On the ground
Miniature versions of such ridges exist on Earth. These are kalgaspores, or "penitent monks". Such ridges of ice needles from 6 to 30 meters in height are formed on high glaciers, in the equator region, where direct sunlight, dryness and low temperatures create conditions for cyclic ablation - almost simultaneous thawing and freezing of ice.
On Pluto, such methane formations can only be possible if the planet was previously significantly warmer than it is now.
Hope Chikanchi