Ice Volcanoes of Charon!

Nature brings new observations of Ice Volcanoes in Outer Space.

Cook speculates that liquid water deep within Charon’s core is mixed with ammonia, which acts like antifreeze and lowers the freezing point. Volcanoes could then belch out this water, which would immediately freeze and snow back down onto the surface of Charon as crystals of ice and the ammonia hydrates that Cook detects in his spectra.

“We looked at several processes; none worked except cryovolcanism,” says Cook.

A beautiful image: a black planet, spewing out a haze of ice crystals, far, far from the sun.

Entered on 24 July 2007 at 18:42 in the Science file | Care to make an observation? | Print Print

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