Burney (crater)

Coordinates: 45°41′N 133°47′E / 45.683°N 133.783°E / 45.683; 133.783
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Burney
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A New Horizons of Burney basin, center. An ancient impact basin, its heavily eroded state makes it difficult to discern; its concentric rings are only slightly brighter than the surrounding plains
Feature typeMulti-ring impact basin
LocationVenera Terra, Pluto
Coordinates45°41′N 133°47′E / 45.683°N 133.783°E / 45.683; 133.783[1]
Diameter296–350 km (184–217 mi)[1][2]
Depth~1.8–3 km (1.1–1.9 mi)[2][3]: 123 
DiscovererNew Horizons
EponymVenetia Burney

Burney, sometimes referred to as the Burney basin,[4][5] is a large multi-ringed impact basin on the dwarf planet Pluto. With a diameter of over 290 kilometers, it is the second-largest known impact basin on Pluto, after the Sputnik Planitia basin. Burney is the only impact basin with visible multiple rings known on Pluto,[a] though its rings have been heavily eroded due to Burney's age.

Discovery and naming[edit]

As with the rest of Pluto's surface features, Burney was first seen on the New Horizons flyby of Pluto and its five moons on 14 July 2015. The impact basin was informally named Burney by the New Horizons team in honor of Venetia Burney, who suggested the name Pluto to the dwarf planet's discoverer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.[7][8]: 10  The name was officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on 8 August 2017.[1]

Geology[edit]

A high-resolution New Horizons image of a section of Burney and its interior craters. One of Burney's rings form a chain of mountains that arcs across the image. Scale bar of 6 mi (9.7 km) is at the top left

Burney is the second-largest impact feature known on Pluto, after the massive basin that encloses Sputnik Planitia.[3]: 123  It is ancient, with an estimated age of at least 4 billion years old, and heavily eroded.[9][3]: 142  The structure of Burney resembles that of the Mare Orientale basin on the Moon, with a series of concentric peak rings that enclose a central depression. Burney's degraded state makes it difficult to discern its extent due to the subtle nature of its peak rings; Burney may have anywhere from 2-4 such rings. As such, estimates for Burney's diameter range from ~290 kilometers to ~350 kilometers.[2][1] The peak rings of Burney are discontinuous and crenulated, standing roughly 500-1,000 meters high. The central depression of Burney is approximately 180 kilometers across and roughly 1.8-3 kilometers deep.[2][3]: 123  Within Burney are numerous impact craters, one of which has been officially named Hardaway.[10]

Much of Burney basin is glaciated, its surface covered in bright, coarse grains of nitrogen ice mixed with water ice.[11][12] The peak rings of Burney are additionally coated in methane ice, indicating that methane preferentially condenses on high-altitude mountain peaks within Burney. By contrast, Burney's floor is poor in methane ice and much smoother than the surrounding plains, possibly from differences in erosion or from glaciation.[9][3]: 127–128  Several dark streaks similar to those found in Sputnik Planitia were observed in and around Burney.[13] Models of Pluto's climate indicate that Burney likely experiences downward-flowing katabatic winds.[14]

Surrounding Burney basin is a broad region to the northwest of Sputnik Planitia that hosts a type of terrain informally called washboard terrain. This terrain is characterized by parallel ridges spaced 1-2 kilometers apart and covers large parts of Burney's basin floor. One hypothesis for the origin of the washboard terrain is from the collection and deposition of material from ancient glaciation. The age of the washboard terrain appears to only marginally postdate the impact event that created Burney.[9]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Simonelli, a similarly-sized crater on the anti-encounter hemisphere of Pluto, may have multiple rings.[3]: 123  Sputik Planitia basin, though much larger, does not have visible rings; any such features are buried beneath its nitrogen glaciers. The blocky mountains alongside Sputnik Planitia's western border may be related to a peak ring within the basin.[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Burney". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. (Center Latitude: 45.68°, Center Longitude: 133.79°)
  2. ^ a b c d McKinnon, William B.; Schenk, P. M.; Mao, X.; et al. (March 2017). Impact Origin of Sputnik Planitia Basin, Pluto (PDF). 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The Woodlands, Texas, United States. 2854. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Stern, S. Alan (August 2021). Moore, Jeffrey M.; Grundy, William M.; Young, Leslie A.; Binzel, Richard P. (eds.). The Pluto System After New Horizons. The University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816540945.
  4. ^ Stern, S. Alan; Keeney, Brian; Hoover, Rachael; Protopapa, Silvia; White, Oliver; Grundy, William; Cruikshank, Dale P. (November 2021). "New Investigations of Dark-floored Pits In the Volatile Ice of Sputnik Planitia on Pluto". The Astronomical Journal. 162 (5): 207. arXiv:2109.01025. Bibcode:2021AJ....162..207S. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac24a6. S2CID 237385294. 207.
  5. ^ McKinnon, William; Singer, Kelsi; Robbins, Stuart; et al. (December 2023). Viscous relaxation of Oort and Edgeworth craters on Pluto: Possible indication of early high heat flows. AAS Division of Planetary Science meeting #54. Bibcode:2022DPS....5430303M. 303.03.
  6. ^ Moruzzi, Samantha A.; Andrews-Hanna, Jeffrey C.; Schenk, Paul; Johnson, Brandon C. (November 2023). "Pluto's Sputnik basin as a peak-ring or multiring basin: A comparative study". Icarus. 405. Bibcode:2023Icar..40515721M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115721. S2CID 260217921. 115721.
  7. ^ Rincon, Paul (13 January 2006). "The girl who named a planet". Pluto: The Discovery of Planet X. BBC News. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  8. ^ Gosmeyer, C. M. (16 December 2015). "Relative and Absolute Ages of Pluto and Charon's Surfaces Using Crater Counts". Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  9. ^ a b c White, Oliver L.; Moore, Jeffrey M.; Howard, Alan D.; et al. (January 2019). "Washboard and fluted terrains on Pluto as evidence for ancient glaciation". Nature Astronomy. 3: 62–68. Bibcode:2019NatAs...3...62W. doi:10.1038/s41550-018-0592-z. S2CID 135139421.
  10. ^ "Pluto Nomenclature" (PDF). Gazetteer of Planetary Nomeclature. 22 September 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  11. ^ Emran, A.; Dalle Ore, C. M.; Ahrens, C. J.; Khan, M. K. H.; Chevrier, V. F.; Cruikshank, D. P. (January 2023). "Pluto's Surface Mapping Using Unsupervised Learning from Near-infrared Observations of LEISA/Ralph". The Planetary Science Journal. 4 (1): 15. arXiv:2301.06027. Bibcode:2023PSJ.....4...15E. doi:10.3847/PSJ/acb0cc. 54.
  12. ^ Schmitt, B.; Philippe, S.; Grundy, W. M.; et al. (May 2017). "Physical state and distribution of materials at the surface of Pluto from New Horizons LEISA imaging spectrometer". Icarus. 287: 229–260. Bibcode:2017Icar..287..229S. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.025.
  13. ^ Hofgartner, J. D.; Buratti, B. J.; Devins, S. L.; et al. (March 2018). "A search for temporal changes on Pluto and Charon". Icarus. 302: 273–284. arXiv:1711.02750. Bibcode:2018Icar..302..273H. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.10.044.
  14. ^ Forget, F.; Bertrand, T.; Vangvichith, M.; Leconte, J.; Millour, E.; Lellouch, E. (May 2017). "A post-new horizons global climate model of Pluto including the N2, CH4 and CO cycles" (PDF). Icarus. 287: 54–71. Bibcode:2017Icar..287...54F. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.11.038. S2CID 125136232.
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