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Webb telescope spots hints that Eris, Makemake are geologically active

arstechnica.com Webb telescope spots hints that Eris, Makemake are geologically active

Webb measured isotopes at the edge of the Solar System, hinting at chemistry.

Webb telescope spots hints that Eris, Makemake are geologically active
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  • This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Dwarf planets near the far edges of the Solar System, like Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects, formed from frigid, icy materials and have generally never transited close enough to the sun to warm up considerably.

    Indications come thanks to the capabilities of the Webb telescope, which was able to resolve differences in the hydrogen isotopes found on the chemicals that populate the surface of Eris and Makemake.

    Kuiper Belt objects are natives of the distant Solar System, forming far enough from the warmth of the Sun that many materials that are gasses in the inner planets—things like nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide—are solid ices.

    While they would have started off hot due to the process by which they formed, their small size means a large surface-to-volume ratio, allowing internal heat to radiate out to space relatively quickly.

    Yet New Horizons' visit to Pluto made clear that it doesn't take much heat to drive active geology, although seasonal changes in sunlight are likely to account for some of its features.

    But Webb is able to image parts of the spectrum that were inaccessible earlier, and its instruments are even able to identify different isotopes of the atoms composing each chemical.


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