Short Takes – 10-24-23 – Geek Edition

An unusual crater on Pluto might be a supervolcano. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “The team suggests strongly that Kiladze is a super cryovolcano. Cryovolcanism is the process that sends ice "lava" to the surface of Pluto. We've seen it across the outer solar system, in some of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Like its "sister" form of volcanism here on Earth, some kind of heating melts mantle materials, which can eventually escape to the surface. We're used to seeing rocky lavas. However, ice and water act as "lava," too, if conditions are just right.”

California's supervolcano has a massive lid that causes swarms of earthquakes — and that's a good thing, scientists say. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “A new study published Oct. 18 in the journal Science Advances, however, finds that the volcano's piping-hot reservoir is covered with a layer of cooled, crystallized magma-turned-rock. The researchers found that as the upper layer of the reservoir cools, it releases volatile gasses in bubbles and burps that cause earthquakes and the ground to inflate — which suggests the seismic activity in the area is not caused by an impending massive eruption.”

Researchers probe how a piece of the moon became a near-Earth asteroid. ScienceDaily.com article. Pull quote: “The other peculiar aspect of Kamo`oalewa is its longevity, said Jose Daniel Castro-Cisneros, the study's lead author and a graduate student in the Department of Physics. Kamo`oalewa is expected to remain as a companion of the Earth for millions of years, which is its remarkable feature, Castro-Cisneros said, unlike other known objects that stay in these very Earth-like orbits only for a few decades.”

NASA's Artemis moon astronauts may wear electric field spacesuits to fight pesky lunar dust. Space.com article. Pull quote: “The new technology is called LiqMEST (Liquid Metal Electrostatic Protective Textile) and aims to overcome the dusty problems NASA's Apollo astronauts struggled with in the 1960s and 1970s. The sharp dust quickly corroded surfaces like rover dust shields, caked the spacesuits of astronauts and generally clung to everything, making even three-day sorties a challenge.”