New Investigations of Dark Floored Pits in the Volatile Ice of Sputnik Planitia on Pluto

TL;DR

This paper investigates the characteristics and origins of elongated pit structures in Sputnik Planitia on Pluto, analyzing New Horizons data to understand their formation, composition, and implications for Pluto's volatile ice dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the physical and compositional attributes of the pits, offering new insights into their formation mechanisms and volatile loss processes.

Findings

Pits vary in length and aspect ratios.

Interior reflectivities and colors suggest specific compositions.

Possible mechanisms for pit formation are discussed.

Abstract

Sputnik Planitia, Pluto's gigantic ice glacier, hosts numerous scientific mysteries, including the presence of thousands of elongated pit structures. We examine various attributes of these pit structures in New Horizons data sets, revealing their length, aspect ratios, and orientation properties; we also study their interior reflectivities, colors, and compositions, and compare these attributes to some other relevant regions on Pluto. We then comment on origin mechanisms of the pits and also the fate of the missing volatiles represented by the pits on Sputnik Planitia.