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Serenity Chasma
Serenity Chasma is the unofficial name given to a large pull-apart fault on Pluto's moon, Charon. It is part of a series of faults that run along the perimeter of Vulcan Planum. It was discovered by the ''New Horizons'' mission, and informally named after the fictitious spaceship, ''Serenity''. Geology Serenity Chasma is long, and about deep, and its typical width is . The northern wall continues for an additional as a scarp after exiting the chasma. The chasma is part of a global tectonic belt; a series of canyons, scarps, and troughs that traverse the face of Charon. This series of faults is the longest known in the solar system. Serenity Chasma formed as the result of a subsurface ocean on Charon, which expanded as it froze. This expansion pushed the Oz Terra region higher and produced the fault belt across Charon's equatorial region. Landslides have been observed within Serenity Chasma. This is the only known occurrence of landslides in the Kuiper Belt. The lower ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Horizons
''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a Planetary flyby, flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow, which became a mission to 486958 Arrokoth. It is the List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System, fifth space probe to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System. On January 19, 2006, ''New Horizons'' was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station by an Atlas V rocket directly into an Earth-and-solar Escape velocity, escape trajectory with a speed of about . It was the fastest (average speed with respect to Earth) man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serenity (Firefly Vessel)
''Serenity'' is a fictional spacecraft that appears in Joss Whedon's '' Firefly'' television series and related works. Set in the 26th century, the series follows the nine-person crew of the ''Firefly''-class vessel, a small transport ship, as they earn a living through various legal and illegal means. The ship is the main setting; it appears in all fourteen episodes, the film, and several comics. The ship was designed by director Joss Whedon, production designer Carey Meyer, and visual effects supervisor Loni Peristere. The collaboration led to more consistency between the live-action and digital effects representations of ''Serenity'' than is usual in science-fiction works. Two contiguous sets were built, between them containing the entirety of the ship's interior, which provided several advantages to the cast and crew during filming. The digital model of the ship was created by Zoic Studios, who also developed methods to digitally replicate live-action filming techniques, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pull-apart Basin
In geology, a basin is a region where subsidence generates accommodation space for the deposition of sediments. A pull-apart basin is a structural basin where two overlapping (en echelon) strike-slip faults or a fault bend creates an area of crustal extension undergoing tension, which causes the basin to sink down. Frequently, the basins are rhombic or sigmoidal in shape. Dimensionally, basins are limited to the distance between the faults and the length of overlap.Frisch, Wolfgang, Martin Meschede, and Ronald C. Blakey. ''Plate tectonics: Continental drift and mountain building''. Springer, 2010. Pull-apart basins are also referred to as overlapping-tension-zones (OTZ). Mechanics and fault configuration The inhomogeneity and structural complexity of continental crust causes faults to deviate from a straight course and frequently causes bends or step-overs in fault paths. Bends and step-overs of adjacent faults become favorable locations for extensional and compressional str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charon (moon)
Charon ( or ), known as (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of . Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS). With half the diameter and one eighth the mass of Pluto, Charon is a very large moon in comparison to its parent body. Its gravitational influence is such that the barycenter of the Plutonian system lies outside Pluto, and the two bodies are tidally locked to each other. The reddish-brown cap of the north pole of Charon is composed of tholins, organic macromolecules that may be essential ingredients of life. These tholins were produced from methane, nitrogen and related gases which may have been released by cryovolcanic eruptions on the moon, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vulcan Planum
Vulcan Planum is the unofficial name given to a large plain on the surface of Pluto's moon Charon, discovered by ''New Horizons'' during its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. It is named after the fictional planet Vulcan in the science-fiction series ''Star Trek''. The name is not approved by International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ..., . Geography Vulcan Planum is in the southern hemisphere of Charon. Its extents are not completely known, but it occupies at least . Vulcan Planum is separated from Oz Terra by a series of scarps that are several kilometers high. It has a mostly smooth surface with no large craters, and its elevation is about 1 km lower than Oz Terra's. This suggests that Vulcan Planum is younger than Oz, and formed as a result ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escarpment''. Some sources differentiate the two terms, with ''escarpment'' referring to the margin between two landforms, and ''scarp'' referring to a cliff or a steep slope. In this usage an escarpment is a ridge which has a gentle slope on one side and a steep scarp on the other side. More loosely, the term ''scarp'' also describes a zone between a coastal lowland and a continental plateau which shows a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Formation and description Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by movement of the Earth's crust at a geologic fault. The first process is the more common type: the escarpment is a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escarpment''. Some sources differentiate the two terms, with ''escarpment'' referring to the margin between two landforms, and ''scarp'' referring to a cliff or a steep slope. In this usage an escarpment is a ridge which has a gentle slope on one side and a steep scarp on the other side. More loosely, the term ''scarp'' also describes a zone between a coastal lowland and a continental plateau which shows a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Formation and description Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by movement of the Earth's crust at a geologic fault. The first process is the more common type: the escarpment is a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oz Terra
Oz Terra is the unofficial name given to a major geological region on Charon. The Pluto-facing hemisphere of Charon is divided onto two primary regions; Oz Terra in the north and Vulcan Planum in the south. These regions are separated by a series of scarps near Charon's equator, particularly Serenity Chasma and Mandjet Chasma. The region was discovered by ''New Horizons'' during its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. Geology Oz Terra sits about a kilometer higher than Vulcan Planum, and is typified by large crustal blocks, having fractured early in Charon's history. The region was formed about 4 billion years ago, when a subsurface ocean of water and ammonia flowed to the surface, and then solidified. See also * List of geological features on Charon The geological features of Charon (moon), Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, are being mapped by scientists using data from the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft. The team has given provisional names to the most prominent. , only some of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landslides
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, characterized by either steep or gentle slope gradients, from mountain ranges to coastal cliffs or even underwater, in which case they are called submarine landslides. Gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, but there are other factors affecting slope stability that produce specific conditions that make a slope prone to failure. In many cases, the landslide is triggered by a specific event (such as a heavy rainfall, an earthquake, a slope cut to build a road, and many others), although this is not always identifiable. Causes Landslides occur when the slope (or a portion of it) undergoes some processes that change its condition from stable to unstable. This is essentially due to a decrease in the shear strength of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuiper Belt
The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia, and water. The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, may have originated in the region. The Kuiper belt was named after Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper, although he did not predict its existence. In 1992, minor planet (15760) Albion was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Geological Features On Charon
The geological features of Charon (moon), Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, are being mapped by scientists using data from the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft. The team has given provisional names to the most prominent. , only some of the names have been officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union, which has agreed that names for features on Charon should come from the following: * Destinations and milestones of fictional space and other exploration. * Fictional and mythological vessels of space and other exploration. * Fictional and mythological voyagers, travellers and explorers. * Authors and artists associated with space exploration, especially Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Some features discovered by the ''New Horizons'' mission have been given provisional names based on various science fiction and fantasy franchises, including ''Star Wars'', ''Star Trek'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Alien (film), Alien'', ''Firefly (TV series), Firefly'', and ''Macross''. These names re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
