Blown Wide Open: Searching for Oceans in the Outer Solar System with Giant Impacts

Giant impacts have influenced many planetary bodies in our solar system. The massive basins left behind provide a critical probe into the subsurface of planetary bodies, as their morphology may directly reflect the thermal and mechanical structure of the target’s interior. Connecting giant impacts to their associated structural and tectonic features, which may be global in scale, provides a novel means to reconstruct the geologic history of worlds whose interiors remain difficult to access. The talk will focus on Sputnik Planitia, Pluto's largest impact basin, and use impact simulations to investigate its formation conditions, morphology, and proposed association with geologic features elsewhere on the surface. By reproducing proximal and distal features associated with the giant impact that formed Sputnik Planitia, we will provide insights into improved constraints on Pluto's interior, including core composition, ice shell structure, and the possibility of a liquid subsurface ocean.

Видео Blown Wide Open: Searching for Oceans in the Outer Solar System with Giant Impacts канала Lunar and Planetary Institute