Cryovolcanism on Quaoar?

[alexblackwell]

In the December 9, 2004 issue of <i>Nature</i> note that Dave Jewitt and Jane Luu published an interesting paper entitled "Crystalline water ice on the Kuiper belt object (50000) Quaoar." See also David Stevenson's accompanying News and Views in the same issue entitled "Planetary science: Volcanoes on Quaoar?" Click here for details on both.<br /><br />Note: for those without access to <i>Nature</i>, I was just told that Dave has made the Jewitt and Luu paper available online.<br /><br />See also:<br /><br />Chilly Quaoar had a warmer past<br />Mark Peplow<br />news@nature.com<br />December 8, 2004<br /><br />Volcanic Activity Possible on Object Beyond Neptune<br />By Robert Roy Britt<br />Senior Science Writer, Space.com<br />posted: 08 December, 2004<br />1:00 p.m. ET

 

[qzzq]

NewScientist.com has a piece about this too: <ul type="square">Frozen heavenly body hints at a warm heart<br /><br />The outer solar system may not be a cemetery full of dead, frozen bodies, suggest new observations of a large object called Quaoar. The study, which says the large body could once have been “warm”, supports theoretical predictions that "planetary" processes such as volcanism can occur in objects at extreme distances from the Sun.<br /><br />Quaoar is 1250 kilometres in diameter - about half the size of Pluto - and is the largest known Kuiper-Belt Object (KBO). These ice-and-rock bodies are left over from the formation of the solar system and form a ring - the Kuiper Belt - beyond Neptune's orbit.<br /><br />Scientists have found about 1000 KBOs so far, but little is known about their composition because they are so distant and faint. Now, observations with the 8-metre Subaru telescope in Hawaii have revealed the spectral signature of crystalline water-ice - and possibly ammonia - in sunlight reflected from Quaoar. <br /><br />The detection of crystalline ice suggests that Quaoar is or was being heated by something other than the Sun, say David Jewitt of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and Jane Luu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Lexington, US. The two researchers discovered the first KBO in 1992, and made these latest observations.</ul>More at the link. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[silylene old]

Ixion, the third largest KBO also has a somewhat interesting spectral signature, best fit to an areal mixture of bright ice and tholin.<br /><br />I wonder if bright ice implies crystallinity, and thus Ixion may also have experienced a warm period?<br /><br />http://www.astro.helsinki.fi/~psr/Papers/Ixion-AAL.pdf <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[Maddad]

I don't buy that. A GRB is an instantaneous event, not a steady source of heat. If it had any effect whatsoever, and that itself is debatable, then it would be surface heating. Whatever heat the object picked up would quickly radiate away again. How long does chicken from your fridge remain frozen on the counter?

 

[Maddad]

The extra heating could be as little as 60 degrees Celsius. However, we have no restriction going back in time as to when this heating may have taken place. One possibility is that Quaoar heated during the collapse of the original molecular dust and gas cloud that eventually became our solar system. The compression of the cloud would have provided the heat source.<br /><br />When the cloud started out it would have been about ten light years across and eight Kelvin. It only needs to get to 110 Kelvin, -163 degrees Celsius, to form water ice crystals. This means that the clould would have reached that temperature when it was about four light years across.<br /><br />That's not entirely accurate though because the cloud starts radiatively cooling as soon as it starts collapsing. But at some point, well before the protostar becomes our sun at 10,000,000 Kelvin, that cloud that contained Quaoar would have crossed the 110 Kelvin threshold.

 

[yurkin]

I have a theory..<br /><br />In the past billion years since its formation Quaoar was hit by another much smaller KBO. The explosion from the impact caused the ice of Quaoar’s surface to melt and turn to snow. The other smaller KBO was also vaporized into snow. Eventually it all fell back down evenly across the surface of the planet.<br />A small KBO would not have this effect since the “snow” would have just been blown off into space due to the weaker gravity.<br />

 

[Maddad]

Thank you for that perspective. Looks like we'll know more in the future. As always seems to be the case.

 

[yurkin]

Triton’s composition is most likely similar to a KBO, if not an actual KBO. It clearly shows cryovolcanism. That was believed to have been caused by tidal heating from Neptune. Maybe that old Voyager 2 data should be revisited.

 

[nexium]

I agree most of the sources of heat are unlikely, but since we have one sample we don't have to rule out even the very improbable. Some other possible heat sources are the acreation disk or jet of a compact star which pasted though the Kupier belt a few thousand or a few million years ago. This compact star could still be within a light years of Earth. If it's surface, acreation disk and jet have cooled in recent centuries, it would be undetectable. Neil

 

[lunatio_gordin]

I thought Europa's albedo was 0.98... I'm probably wrong though.