A ‘dwarf planet’ in the deepest reaches of our solar system is covered in crystalline ice, it has been revealed.Haumea was discovered in 2004 but new findings from European scientists have now offered new details of the tiny planet orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune.
According to the European Southern Observatory, the mini-planet is the shape of a ‘flattened rugby ball’ and 75 per cent of its surface is covered with a reflective surface of water ice.
The entire surface of Hi’iaka, one of Haumea’s two satellites along with Namaka, is also covered in this icy shell.
The surface of the dwarf planet and its moon is unusual as it is crystalline and possesses an ordered structure, rather than being shapeless, amorphous ice.
The ESCP team believe this means Haumea has a frozen outer surface and a largely rock inner structure.
‘Since solar radiation constantly destroys the crystalline structure of ice on the surface, energy sources are required to keep it organised,’ said Benoit Carry, co-author of the study and a researcher at the ESAC Centre of the European Space Agency in Madrid.
‘The two that we have taken into consideration are that able to generate radiogenic elements (potassium-40, thorium-232 and uranium-238) from the inside, and the tidal forces between Haumea and its satellites (as seen between the Earth and the Moon)’ he told Spanish outlet SINC. Read More
