Snow White Dwarf Planet Contains Ice From Ancient Slush-Spewing Volcanoes
Posted on August 22, 2011
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered ice, and possibly methane, on the dwarf planet 2007 OR10, which is nicknamed Snow White. Snow White was discovered in 2007. At the time it was nicknamed Snow White for its presumed white color, but the planet is actually one of the reddest objects in the solar system. Snow White orbits the sun at the edge of the solar system and is about half the size of Pluto.
Caltech astronomers say half of Snow White's surface is covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient, slush-spewing volcanoes. The red-tinged dwarf planet may also be covered in a thin layer of methane, the remnants of an atmosphere that's slowly being lost into space.
"You get to see this nice picture of what once was an active little world with water volcanoes and an atmosphere, and it's now just frozen, dead, with an atmosphere that's slowly slipping away," says Mike Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor and professor of planetary astronomy, who is the lead author on a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letter.
Brown says Snow White's spectrum clearly shows the presence of water ice. However, the evidence for methane is not yet definitive. To find out, the astronomers will have to use a big telescope like the one at the Keck Observatory.