In this Bill McKinnon video 2hr 17min 30sec into it
Bill says. SP on Pluto and Hellas on Mars are big craters and cratering efficiency is very low. You don't need to be very oblique to get an elliptical crater as long as your cratering efficiency is very low. Cratering efficiency is defined as the ratio of the radii of the diameter to the impactor. What Bill meant to say was, the ratio of mass of displaced soil to projectile mass. Estimates for SP are very low around 2 for the transient crater that made SP. That is the impactor is about half the size of the transient crater. |
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In the video, Bill displays this chart and continues to says
Chances of getting an impact crater the size of Sputnik Planitia in the last 4 Gyr is less than one percent. This makes Sputnik Planitia a very, very ancient structure? What happened to transient? I don't quite follow this logic, it seems to me the less than 1 percent chance of SP having been hit by an object this size says more to indicate this is not an impact site rather than concluding it is an old structure. This logic infers, only smaller objects can collide with planets in the last 4 billion years. |
In this video crater # 14 Kara was 75 miles (120km) in size 70 million years ago but has since eroded down to 40 miles in diameter demonstrating how craters on planets with atmospheres and geology, erode down to smaller sizes. That means, since SP is geologically active it would had to have been nearly twice as large as it is today.
Crater # 11 Acraman in Australia was formed 580 million years ago and has eroded down to 56 miles. The reason so few craters are found on Earth is because they erode away. But in Pluto's case a 4 billion year old impact is supposed to be geologically active and twice its original size and the impact didn't hit at an oblique 5 degree angle. |
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Keane's Notes Sep 25th 2016
SP is 3 km (1.86 miles) below surrounding terrain
1,300 x 900 km (808 x 560 miles) ellipse See a clear rim Do not see clear secondaries (perhaps erased by glaciers) No clear rings, but the mountains sort of line up where you expect rings Lack of rings/secondaries is reminiscent of Hellas, Mars There is a 1 km (0.6 miles) thick ejecta "collar" around SP! |
Two months later on Nov 16, 2016 F. Nimmo, Bill McKinnon and others published an article in Nature called Reorientation of Sputnik Planitia implies a subsurface ocean on Pluto. In the article, there's an image of SP along with its dimensions which are 1,300 km x 900 km Four months later the following Keane notes show Bill is saying SP is 1,150 km x 900 km. |
Keane's Notes Mar 22nd 2017
SP is 2.5 Km deeper than average Pluto
SP is an 1,150 x 900 km (715 x 560 miles) elliptical basin. Ejecta? Structural uplift/Rim? Multiple Rings? Mascon? (Mass concentration he's suggesting there's a bulging subsurface ocean) Compared to the radius of the planet, Sputnik Planitia is similar in scale to Hellas, Mars. 3 km/s impactor, hitting at 45 degrees (he's migrated away from 5° impact angle) = 150-250 km diameter impactor. |
All I'm trying to point out with this quote is that one scientist (Bob Pappalardo) says it had to happen within the last 4 byr while another (Bill McKinnon) says it happened more than 4 byr ago which says to me, I need to reason this stuff out for myself. This is an image of an oblique (low angle) impact on Mars. Take note of the spatter pattern. Debris is ejected laterally from the direction of impact |
I wanted to get a better visual picture of the size of a 150 km diameter impactor relative to the size of Sputnik Planitia so I drew this image of Pluto, SP and an impactor to scale. Sputnik Planitia is so large relative to the curvature of Pluto that an impactor would have to disturb an area large enough to travel beyond Pluto's horizon. Bill's 5 degree impact may sell the idea of an oblique impact looking like a carrot but 95% of the material would continue into space after the impact and its ejecta would have splayed out laterally to the direction of travel Pluto's gravity is 12 times weaker than Earth's so a 5 degree glancing blow could not possibly create a basin the size of SP. Bill then switches up his strategy and says the impactor hit at an angle greater than 45 degrees but less than 90. At an angle steeper than 45 degrees the impactor would do less damage southward. |
We've gone from a 5 degree impact to a 45 degree impact because five degrees with a carrot shape helps explain this impact as a shape similar to SP and 45 degrees helps sell the idea Pluto has experienced polar wander and a subsurface ocean exists creating a positive gravity anomaly at SP.
Someone finally observed that SP was aligned directly across from Charon. Francis Nimmo used this observation to support Bill McKinnon's subsurface ocean theory (I dissect this argument on page 95) suggesting that the crust of Pluto at SP was thinned by an impactor which created an underground bulge allowing more ocean water to exist beneath SP creating a positive gravity anomaly at SP even though SP was a 3 km (1.86 mile) deep basin which in fact by all normal reasoning should be a negative gravity anomaly. Don't be confused by the rhetoric SP is a negative gravity anomaly. |
Notice the difference in the circle Bill used to present SP as an impact site versus the positive gravity anomaly outline of SP used in the above image. The above image needs SP to be centered along the Pluto/Charon tidal axis while Bills image needs to create the illusion of an impact basin. The above image is more accurately depicting SP shape than Bill's image (left). |
I've said it before but consider the logic of this positive gravity anomaly at SP. Roll an unevenly balanced ball across the floor and the heaviest side always stops with the densest (heaviest, gravitationally strongest) side facing toward the center of the earth it will NEVER stop with the heaviest side facing away from the strongest pull of gravity. Our moon is tidally locked with the densest part facing toward Earth. Pluto and Charon would naturally gravitationally lock with their densest sides facing each other. It is ridiculous to think otherwise yet this is exactly what mainstream scientists want us to believe. |
This above image is the whole premise of the positive gravity anomaly that theoretically suggests SP rotated the densest part of Pluto from a perpendicular angle to Charon around to the anti Charon side and an impact created a thin crust at SP with an uplifted subsurface water ocean. This absurd conclusion is the result of force feeding Bill McKinnon's concepts onto Pluto, it actually started back with Bill and Robin Canup's collision model but the end results are the same. Approach a problem with a preconceived answer and you can force fit any scenario onto the landscape even conceiving of greater densities where there is less mass.
Perhaps you've heard of Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation.
This law says that every mass exerts an attractive force on every other mass. The larger the mass and the closer the objects, the stronger the force. This simple statement explains why the densest part of Pluto is facing Charon and vise versa. |
I've already covered the above points in previous pages so moving along, the comments in James Keane's notes that peaked my interest the most were these.
Lack of rings/secondaries is reminiscent of Hellas, Mars Compared to the radius of the planet, Sputnik Planitia is similar in scale to Hellas, Mars. Since Bill is referencing Hellas on Mars as a comparison to SP, I decided I needed to study Hellas more closely. |
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Be aware that flat maps do a really bad job of accurately depicting land mass at higher latitudes.
This gif shows the actual size of land masses on Earth that you probably thought were much larger than in reality. The same holds true for the flat Mars maps. Higher latitude surface areas are much smaller than depicted on flat maps. On with the show |
Right image shows a few features with names like Olympus Mons (volcano), Alba Patera (volcano) and the Tharsis Montes (mountains). This entire area is of particular interest. Look close at the surrounding area of Olympus Mons, you can see a ring pattern surrounding this massive raised land mass area. |
This is a mud volcano on Earth looking very much like Syrtis Major.
There is a vast quantity of frozen water ice below the dirt surface of Mars. Many of the elevated mounds called Planums are Mars' version of mud volcanoes. When I use the word volcano for these features, consider most of them to be mud volcanoes creating gently sloping Planums. Have a closer look below. |
Here's the same area colored in topographical colors.
Elevated Elysium is adjacent to depressed Utopia. Elevated Syrtis Major is adjacent to depressed Isidis. Both Elysium and Syrtis are volcanoes even though Syrtis is called a planum. While Syrtis is an elevated plain it was nevertheless created by volcanic processes and is a mud volcano or a type of shield volcano Syrtis with its gentle smooth slope is a massive mud volcano while Elysium was constructed more from rocky material displaying a more obvious peak. |
Right image is a rotating view of Mars in a topographical format showing how Alba Patera is directly opposite Hellas Planitia. Below is a topographical map, purple is the lowest elevation followed by dark then light blue, green is zero elevation while yellow, red then white are higher elevations. I've circled in blue the highest elevation areas and in red the lowest. |
Olympus Mons is the highest and gravitationally densest spot but Alba Patera is larger than Olympus. Alba Patera is directly opposite Hellas and Olympus Mons is not far from being directly aligned opposite to that same lowest point on Mars.
I'm suggesting these two high and low features are related to each other. Interestingly just like Sputnik Planitia's basin is directly opposite Pluto/Charon's greatest gravitational pull so too is Hellas Planitia's basin relative to the Olympus Mons zone. |
This gravity map shows how Olympus Mons and other nearby points exhibit high gravity zones mostly in direct correlation to their vertical height.
Typically the higher the land mass the heavier so the greater the gravity and conversely lower topography areas tend to have less land mass in turn creating less gravity. This doesn't always hold true as there is a lot of subsurface frozen water which is less dense than rock. Hellas basin shows an outer ring of blue low gravity also below zero elevation with an inner circle of green and yellow higher gravity above zero elevation. The blue outer ring indicates low gravity or less land mass (thinner crust) while the central yellow green area is thicker. |
Something that is clear and obvious is that the moat within Hellas has far, far fewer impacts than the edge of the outer rim.
This means the moat of fluid is much younger than the surrounding outer edge and this geological feature is not anywhere near as old as the surrounding land features. Theoretical impacts of Hellas' size are supposed to have only occurred more than 4 billion years ago and if geological activity exists they should erode becoming smaller over time. In the above video, Bill displays a chart and says Chances of getting an impact crater the size of Sputnik Planitia in the last 4 Ga is less than one percent. This makes Sputnik Planitia a very, very ancient structure? |
NASA used a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer to measure neutrons which help identify the concentrations of water ice to rock and dirt at various depths on Mars.
Planetary Science Research Discoveries wrote a paper about this dirty water ice and its distribution properties on Mars. H2O is all over the place around Hellas. This would make the structural integrity of the ground beneath the dirt very susceptible to temperature changes as well as gravitational pressures. |
Here's an image of Ahuna Mons on Ceres and it is believed to have been created by cryovolcanic processes.
Wiki quote Ahuna Mons is the largest mountain on the dwarf planet and asteroid Ceres. It protrudes above otherwise smooth terrain, it is not an impact feature, and it appears to be the only mountain of its kind on Ceres. Bright streaks run top to bottom on its slopes; these streaks are thought to be salt, similar to the better known Cererian bright spots, and likely resulted from cryovolcanic activity from Ceres's interior. |
I'm suggesting the crater next to Ahuna is the result of the same process that created Ahuna. The two are connected just like Batagaika, Hellas, Isidis, Utopia, Acidalia and Sputnik Planitia are all related to their adjacent volcanoes.
Sputnik Planitia basin is bounded by Tartarus Dorsa and Viking Terra (bulging land) and cryovolcanoes, Batagaika sits at the base of a volcanically created mountain, Ahuna cryovolcanic mound sits next to a basin, Hellas is bounded by Hesperia and Malea (volcanoes), Syrtis Major (volcano) is next to Isidis basin, Elysium (volcano) is next to Utopia basin, the entire Tharis Mons volcano area 40% of Mars borders Vastitas Borealis basin.
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Jackson Hole Wyoming is a basin or sink hole that is still sinking as the Grand Tetons and other mountain ranges rise up around the basin.
Some land is pushed up and rises while nearby land sinks into a basin. Once again I'm standing in opposition to main stream science which says Hellas basin is an impact site supposedly 3.8 billion years old. If it were that old, wouldn't there be more impacts contained within the basin itself and the transition of impact frequency from center to outer edge be more gradual? Supposedly craters the size of Hellas and SP were only created prior to 4 Ga. |