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Quaoar Showing Evidence of Volcanic Activity

Posted by michael on from the long-way-out dept.

calibanDNS writes "Recent findings at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy indicate that there may be volcanic activity on at least one object in the Kuiper belt."

9 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Someone needs to say something by LeninZhiv · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, to break the silence, I'll chip in my two cents:

    1) It's really really cool to think that that far out into the solar system there could be geological activity going on. The sun's gotta be something like only -3 magnitude from out there.

    2) This has got to be really hard to verify or know much about; although at least now when we get around to sending further probes into the Kuiper belt Quaoar will probably be way up there on the priority scale, which is a good thing.

    Come to think of it, isn't there a probe that was recently launched headed to the Kuiper belt? Anyone know if by some great surrendipity it might be travelling in this region? I look forward to theories as to why Quaoar rather than Pluto or Sedna would be the first signs of geo activity in the outer solar system.

    Just some random thoughts from an amateur astronomer...

    1. Re:Someone needs to say something by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 5, Informative

      The sun's gotta be something like only -3 magnitude from out there.

      Quaoar is at 43 AU from the Sun. That means the Sun's luminosity is down by a factor of 43^2, or about 1900, from what we get at Earth. That's about 8 magnitudes, so the Sun is about a -18 magnitude object. Still by far the brightest thing around.

      Besides, it doesn't matter much. Volcanism is an endogenic process, so the heat source would generally be internal. Surface temperature seldom sets much to do with geological activity. (Erosion is the main exception to this.)

      This has got to be really hard to verify or know much about

      More, and better, spectra. You don't need to get close to something to figure out what's going on, as much as it helps. Another group reportedly already has similar spectra and sees similar features.

      Also, lab work on ice at these temperatures and pressures would help a lot. Although it's hard to figure out what ice will do over the course of 4 billion years...

      Come to think of it, isn't there a probe that was recently launched headed to the Kuiper belt?

      No. The New Horizons mission to Pluto hasn't launched yet.

      I look forward to theories as to why Quaoar rather than Pluto or Sedna would be the first signs of geo activity in the outer solar system.

      1. It's not. Pluto has evidence for geological activity.
      2. So do a lot of other outer solar system objects, although you seem to mean "Kuiper Belt Objects" in this case. (They're not the same thing. The "outer solar system" is usually taken to mean the giant planets and outward.) Even then, you almost have to count Neptune's giant moon Triton on the list, which almost certainly has geological activity.
      3. Sedna is smaller than Quaoar. So it's less likely to have geological activity. Also, it's farther away thatn Quaoar, so it's really tough getting a spectrum.
    2. Re:Someone needs to say something by shpoffo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So then the Quaoar scenario would seem to show that:

      a) there is some continuous process of heat
      b) there is some form of radiation shielding
      c) there is another process at work that mimics/underlies what we see in heat (spin dynamics, sufficient gravitation, etc?)

      additions, subtractions, comments (from anyone)?

      .
      -shpoffo

  2. Quasar Showing Evidence of Volcanic Activity by KWTm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone else think, "Geez, can't they even spell 'quasar' correctly"?

    Followed by an excited rush to the article to see how the heck a star can have volcanic activity, of course.

    --
    404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
    [GPG key in journal]
  3. Re:so... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, it's a clue about what goes on inside KBOs. Since we can't drill into any of them right now, this is the best we can do.

  4. Re:Pronounced kwa-whar why not spelled kwa-whar? by jeif1k · · Score: 2, Funny

    THEN WHY DON"T YOU SPELL IT PHONETICALLY?!?!??!

    Perbli fer the seim rizn u dohnd spell fenetekli idha.

  5. Re:a bit of wishful thinking... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Large collisions would be pretty rare in the Kuiper Belt. There just isn't enough stuff around. Worse, they occur at low speeds. So you wouldn't expect to generate a lot of melting that way. It's possible, of course. But it's an eyebrow-raiser.

    "Particulate venting"? You mean volatile sublimation, like comets when they get near the Sun? I don't know of any asteroids that do that. And Quaoar is much too far from the Sun to expect that sort of behavior. (The maximum temperature you would expect is around 50 Kelvins. And that assumes an albedo of 0, which can't be the case if they can see it in the visible wavelengths.)

  6. More Kuiper Belt Information Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Website by the leader of the study: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb.html

  7. Re:a bit of wishful thinking... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 2, Informative

    a) Having taught from that book, I can tell you right now that Hartmann is not an introductory level text. So please don't try to insult me.

    b) Chiron and Wilson-Harrington are not asteroids. Both are comets. Chiron is nowhere near the main belt and is, rather, a type of object known as a Centaur. It's basically a kind of cometary body, not an asteroid.

    c) While some dead comets are widely believed to be disguing themselves as asteroids, no one (except Hartmann perhaps) that I know wants to classify them in the same category. There is certainly a varaition in the makeup of comets, but comets and asteroids have very different histories and compositions. Having formed inside of the frost-line, asteroids are widely-agreed to be (pretty much by defintion) volatile-poor. Outgassing would not be expected under those conditions as a consequence.

    A little research would have told you this. (Google is your friend, here.) The IAU, for example, codifies the distinction in the very handling and naming of newly discovered bodies.

    In any case, all of this is a tangent. You are suggesting that Sedna could be sublimating when its maximum temperature from solar insolation would be about 50 K. That's singularly unlikely.