Pluto's 'almost twin' dwarf planet Eris is surprisingly squishy
Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2023 8:31 pm
Pluto's 'almost twin' dwarf planet Eris is surprisingly squishy
Read more here:
https://www.space.com/pluto-twin-dwarf- ... is-squishy
Close to 18 years ago, astronomers spotted a miniature, icy world named Eris billions of miles beyond Neptune. But unlike its dwarf planet cousin Pluto — which New Horizons promoted to a rich, dynamic world after its visit in 2015 — Eris has not had any robotic visitors. It is so far away from Earth, in fact, that it shows up in observations just as a single pixel of light.
All in all, scientists know very little about what happens on Eris.
Though what we do know is Eris is known to have an atmosphere that freezes and snows onto the surface below, thanks to its place near the edge of the solar system. It's about 68 times farther from the sun than Earth is. And now, new models based on data from an array of radio telescopes in Chile have revealed more about Eris. Heat leftover from the dwarf planet's birth seems to be oozing out and slowly flexing its icy surface.
Read more here:
https://www.space.com/pluto-twin-dwarf- ... is-squishy
Close to 18 years ago, astronomers spotted a miniature, icy world named Eris billions of miles beyond Neptune. But unlike its dwarf planet cousin Pluto — which New Horizons promoted to a rich, dynamic world after its visit in 2015 — Eris has not had any robotic visitors. It is so far away from Earth, in fact, that it shows up in observations just as a single pixel of light.
All in all, scientists know very little about what happens on Eris.
Though what we do know is Eris is known to have an atmosphere that freezes and snows onto the surface below, thanks to its place near the edge of the solar system. It's about 68 times farther from the sun than Earth is. And now, new models based on data from an array of radio telescopes in Chile have revealed more about Eris. Heat leftover from the dwarf planet's birth seems to be oozing out and slowly flexing its icy surface.