New Constraints on Pluto's Sputnik Planitia Ice Sheet from a Coupled Reorientation-Climate Model

TL;DR

This study uses a coupled reorientation and climate model to investigate how true polar wander and atmospheric processes shaped Pluto's Sputnik Planitia ice sheet and its current location, considering Pluto's orbital and obliquity variations.

Contribution

It introduces a more accurate climate and obliquity model to reassess the formation and placement of Sputnik Planitia via true polar wander on Pluto.

Findings

TPW is a viable mechanism for SP formation and location.

Initial impact basin likely north of current SP, 35-50 N latitude.

N2 ice sheet constrained to 1-2 km thickness, basin depth 2.5-3 km.

Abstract

We present a coupled reorientation and climate model, to understand how true polar wander (TPW) and atmospheric condensation worked together to create the Sputnik Planitia (SP) ice sheet and reorient it to its present-day location on Pluto. SP is located at 18 N, 178 E, very close to the anti-Charon point, and it has been previously shown that this location can be explained by TPW reorientation of an impact basin as it fills with N2 ice. We readdress that hypothesis while including a more accurate treatment of Pluto's climate and orbital obliquity cycle. Our model again finds that TPW is a viable mechanism for the formation and present-day location of SP. We find that the initial impact basin could have been located north of the present-day location, at latitudes between 35 N and 50 N. The empty basin is constrained to be 2.5 -- 3 km deep, with enough N2 available to form at most a 1 -- 2 km thick ice sheet. Larger N2 inventories reorient too close to the anti-Charon point. After reaching the final location, the ice sheet undergoes short periods of sublimation and re-condensation on the order of ten meters of ice, due Pluto's variable obliquity cycle, which drives short periods of reorientation of a few km. The obliquity cycle also has a role in the onset of infilling; some initial basin locations are only able to begin accumulating N2 ice at certain points during the obliquity cycle. We also explore the sensitivity of the coupled model to albedo, initial obliquity, and Pluto's orbit.