Pluto and his huge charon of the Moon are visible together in this image taken from the New Horizons space vehicle. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New research suggests that Pluto may have acquired his most massive moon, Charon, through an ancient impact on pasture, that the scientific team defines a “kiss and capture”.
The study uses computer models to suggest a possible new method with which the large bodies in the Kuiper belt could enter into orbit each other. He was led by C. Adene Denton, a post -Nasa -entry member at the Southwest Research Institute and published today in the magazine Geoscience of nature.
A revaluation of the strength
Pluto and Charon hold a unique place in the hearts and minds of scientists and the public. Discovered in 1930, Pluto was identified as the ninth planet until he reclassified himself as a dwarf planet in 2006 following the discovery of reference of several trans-neptunian objects of similar dimensions, which orbit beyond Neptune in the distant rays of the system external solar.
One of the most unusual aspects of Pluto is his huge charon, which is about 12 huge percent as Pluto. This may not seem very much, but for the comparison, our moon – which is also considered in some way great compared to its host planet – is only 1.2 percent about the land. In fact, Charon is so great compared to his host world that it and Pluto actually orbit a common center of mass (or “barrel”) which is located outside the surface of Pluto himself. This particular mass relationship was part of the inspiration for Denton and the search for his team.
Charon also has an abnormally circular orbit of Pluto, with its orbital eccentricity (a value between 0 and 1, where 0 is a perfect circle and 1 is an open parable) only about 0,000161.
Scientists thought that this system was born in a way similar to the earth and the moon, with a huge impact that affects the young Pluto in the ancient past of the sun system, thus launching a large field of ice and rock debris that subsequently yes He is combined with the proto-charon. The problem with this theory is that the estimated speeds and the known masses of the bodies do not completely add up in the simulations. “Pluto is not huge enough to capture Charon through a normal mechanism,” says Denton of the old models.
But Denton and the code of his team more carefully modeled the strength of materials in the bodies. And consider how this element could influence the dynamics of the collision and what came later. “The previous simulations had Pluto and Charon who hit each other and assumed that both bodies were substantially fluid,” says Denton. Compare the way these old models have described the collision of the Pluto-Charon as similar to the way the hot wax flows within a lava lamp, with the angular moment of the impact easily given to vaguely fluid bodies.
“The implementation of strength means adding another level that says:” Okay, I want you to behave as if you were made of rock and ice, instead of behaving like a fluid. “And we can do it because we have laboratory measurements of how strong are rocks and ice,” says Denton. “The strength is only the amount of strength that you can apply to a material before you start deforming, then adding a model of strength, we allow Pluto and Charon to maintain a realistic structural integrity for geological bodies.”
Once this information has been connected, the results suggest that the proto-carture may have clashed with Pluto sometimes in the ancient past, therefore it was briefly joined with the largest parent body, before being launched and attracted in its currently circular orbit orbit from angular forces given by the collision. Denton and his team call this “Kiss-and-Capency” method, as it involves a short period in which the two bodies were in contact. Other trans-Neptuniani worlds can currently be seen in a similar state, called contact track, such as 486958 Arrokoth.
A heated kiss?
This research and results it provides are partly exciting because they indicate a forward journey for the future study of the Pluto-Charon system and other bodies throughout the Kuiper belt. The Trans-Neptuniano 90482 ORCUS object (which many scientists consider a dwarf planet) and its Luna Vanth, for example, share a similar mass ratio (I think is from 14 percent enormous as Orcus). And a number of other TNOs have large moons compared to their parents worlds.
Denton says that the results of his team could help to explain why Pluto and Charon surprisingly have a quantity of geological activity despite their small stature and their immense distance from the sun.
“One of the interesting things of the collision that we modeled is that it gives a lot of warmth to the system,” says Denton. “Increase the internal heat by about 100 [degrees Celsius (180 degrees Fahrenheit)]”He says.” For the ice, he could make a big difference. “
With this in mind, it seems likely that there are still many great discoveries that remained in store for these small but powerful worlds of the external sun system.
