Jason Cook along with 10 other scientist like Alan Stern, Harold Weaver & Will Grundy recently released a significant paper about Pluto's Moons Styx, Nix and Hydra called Spectroscopy of Pluto's Small Satellites. The paper reveals they all have ammonia hydrates (the moons not the scientists).
Ammonia is NH3 or 3 Hydrogen atoms bonded to a nitrogen atom (plenty of both elements on Pluto). A Hydrate is a substance that contains water H2O |
Carl Sagan & Bishun Khare were the two scientists who combined these gasses commonly found in the universe with simulated electrical pulse lightning to develop the complex hydrocarbons we call tholins. Tholin's are the red gunk on Pluto, the impact crater zit on Nix, the red stuff at Mordor and the red material found on comet 1994 Jr1. |
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Spectral lines of absorption occur when we look at a light source that has a gas cloud between us and the light. Spectral lines of emission occur when light bounces off a gas.
This creates a band in the light spectrum like a finger print. This allows us to identify the elements within gasses with high precision. Several scientist listed below used this same process of spectral analysis on the trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moons Tethys and Enceladus to identify and draw some conclusions about ammonia hydrates found on Tethys. |
The melting temperature of ammonia hydrate at 1 bar is ~194 K (Pluto's surface temp is 30-60K and its atmospheric pressure is 100,000 times less than earth, similar to Mars.), considerably lower than that of pure water ice.
On a saturnian satellite, photolysis would deplete a 10 micro meter layer of ammonia rich ice in only 100 years, and sputtering would deplete the uppermost surface layer of any ammonia molecules on time scales of less than a million years (Saturnian moons are closer to the Sun than Pluto delivering more photons=less time to deplete NH3). Therefore, the presence of ammonia hydrate on the surface of an icy satellite implies recent emplacement, possibly by cryovolcanic activity. Such activity has been invoked to explain the presence of ammonia hydrate on Pluto's satellite Charon. We find that spectral models (red line in Fig. 1) which include as much as 80% by weight of ammonia hydrate (1% NH3.H2O) intimately mixed with water ice at 60 K covering 30% of the illuminated surface area fit the observed spectrum. |
This means Charon's smooth southern surface occurred less than 20 million years ago as did the formation of the small moons.
This is real science not media hype science or speculation. If these small moons were older than 20 million years there would be no detectable NH3+H2O. In an effort to explain why the small moon's reflectance or albedo is so bright after 4 billion years, NASA postulated that micro meteorites were continually cleaning or resurfacing the moons. Clean surfaces mean the surface is exposed to photons from the Sun and the ammonia would then be disassociated within 20 million years. |
On the other hand, if these moons were knocked off Pluto/Charon into full sized moon chunks which they were, it couldn't have been that long ago or else the ammonia hydrate would have disassociated.
That means these small moons are much, much, much younger than 4 billion years as is the southern surface of Charon. Another possibility is that I don't understand this information and am getting something wrong but I don't think so, it simply took me a long time to find the right scientific data to back up what I've been saying about the active geological age of Pluto and Charon. This stuff happened recently and there is no radioactive hot core. The only reasonable explanation for all these observations is that Pluto and Charon experienced a recent elliptical tidal flexing Neptune induced eccentric orbital dance. |
The one moon missing from this reported NH3 information is Kerberos.
It was too far away and too small to get a good enough read to determine whether or not there is NH3 on it. Since Charon, Styx, Nix and Hydra have ammonia hydrate's it is very likely Kerberos contains NH3 as well. Whether it does or doesn't is mostly insignificant. |
The above chart on the right has 3 diagonal lines indicating surface age.
yellow=4Gyr, blue=3Gyr and purple= 2Gyr surfaces. Hydra's 3 blue triangles fall between 2.5 billion years and about 2.75 billion years Nix's red/pink diamonds depending on the camera used ranges from 3 to 4.5 billion years. So the range of potential ages for these moons based on NASA's chart is anywhere from 2.5 to 4.5 BILLION years that's a 2 billion year slop factor. Yet NASA claims this as proof that the moons are 4 billion years old. This chart to the left shows the Nix impacts (pink & red diamonds) not shown in the above chart. These impact examples don't fit as nice and neat into this 4 billion year old theory so they were left out of the chart above which was used at the 47th LPSC conference in Texas. The LORRI camera (pink diamonds) puts some of Nix's impacts at around 2.5 billion years and MVIC puts some at less than 3 billion years yet this is proof of 4Gyr old moons from impact dating. |
The black chart above was used publicly to demonstrate how the moon's impacts placed this system's age at 4 Gyr but it only displayed 7 of the 14 impact data points. It seemed interesting to me that NASA would leave out half of the data from their original paper so I decided to use all 14 impacts and draw the diagonal lines to see how things lined up. My magenta line is 4 Gyr the blue is 3 Gyr and the red is 2 Gyr. This chart runs from .1 kilometer diameter crater to 1000 km this is why the diagonal lines appear steeper. Since there are more data points on this chart using the three diagonal lines renders some interesting results. Four impacts are less than 2 billion years and 7-9 fall between 2 and 3 billion years. My conclusion about this chart remains the same, it is an unreliable method for age dating the moons. |
This new information about these small moons kills one Pluto concept of mine. I suggested that since we don't see ammonia on Pluto, it is not reasonable to assume it's present below the surface (turns out it was a reasonable assumption). I further stated that just because we see it on Charon doesn't mean it exist on Pluto. While that statement is correct, if we see it on Charon, Styx, Nix and Hydra which now we do then it is very reasonable to assume it is on Pluto. |
There are two ways of adjusting my theory to align with this new information about ammonia found on three of the small moons. Either Nix is not a rock of ice ejected from Pluto (perhaps it came from Charon) or Pluto does have ammonia but just not detectable on the surface. Either way, this is significant information and in either case one of my theories is incorrect.
I've suggested two theories followed by a prediction the prediction was wrong which suggest one of the theories was also wrong. Theory 1, Hydra was kicked off Charon - rational -
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Since Nix looks smells and barks like a Pluto (similar albedo, red zit, low orbit), I'm going to continue to say it came from Pluto not Charon.
Since Nix has ammonia, it may have come from Charon but the albedo and tholin zit crater argue against this so I'm tossing this idea aside in favor of Pluto having ammonia. Conclusion, Pluto has NH3 because Nix came from Pluto and has it. |
While the required subsurface pressures could be achieved to produce an ocean of water and the ammonia does exist (in unknown quantities), the core is not large enough to be hot.
Without a large and hot enough core to produce sufficient heat, it is still an unlikely scenario to assume there is a water based ocean. Since I don't know if tidal flexing could have generated enough heat energy to create the pressures and temperatures required to turn ammonia infused ice into liquid water, I keep falling back to observational evidence. |
If the mere presence of ammonia was enough to argue in favor of a subsurface ocean of water, Charon wouldn't be dead.
We see NH3 on the surface of Charon but it is not geologically active because it is too cold, too small with too low a density to have an active core hence no ocean of water and no geological activity no atmosphere. Green blotches and freckles in this image are the detected NH3. |