Wright Mons

21°21′S 173°14′E / 21.350°S 173.233°E / -21.350; 173.233^[1]Diameter~150 km^[2]Peak4.7 ± 1 km (2.92 ± 0.62 mi) base to crest^[3][a]DiscovererNew HorizonsEponymWright brothers

Wright Mons is a large, roughly circular mountain and likely cryovolcano^[4] on the dwarf planet Pluto. It is located southwest of Sputnik Planitia near the center of the low-lying Hyecho Palus region, adjacent to the Tenzing Montes and Belton Regio.^[3] A relatively young geological feature, Wright Mons has attracted attention as one of the most apparent examples of recent geological activity on Pluto.

Naming

Upon its discovery by the New Horizons spacecraft on 14 July 2015, the mountain was informally named by the New Horizons team after American aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright. On 30 May 2019, Wright Mons was approved as the official name by the IAU.^[1]

Geology

Wright Mons's edifice is roughly annular in shape, likely composed of primarily water ice, and stands roughly 3.5-4.7 km above Hyecho Palus with a ~45 km wide central depression that stretches some 3.5-4.5 km below Wright Mons's summit.^[3] Two subsidiary peaks mark the summit rim, one roughly circular mound north of the central depression and another to the southwest.^[5]

Wright Mons's relatively shallow flanks are largely dominated by a dense network of hummocks, or hills, each roughly 10 to 15 km in diameter and 200 to 600 meters high.^[3][6] The approximately conical central depression has a roughly flat floor which reaches nearly, if not as low as the plains surrounding Wright Mons. The central depression is ringed by concentric topographical fabric, or small textured ridges, possibly originating from a summit collapse or from superficial emplacement, and a series of radial trenches mark the central depression wall. Wright Mons's eastern flank is intersected by a north-south fault which displaces the eastern section downwards relative to the western section, resulting in a height asymmetry of the mountain.^[5] Only one probable impact crater has been identified on Wright Mons's edifice, indicating that Wright Mons is likely younger than one billion years old.^[7]

Hummocky terrain

Wright Mons is surrounded by an unusual type of terrain informally termed hummocky terrain, characterized by semi-regular mounds of unclear origin. Much of Hyecho Palus is covered by hummocky terrain, but the hummocky terrain is most apparent adjacent to and partially on Wright Mons's edifice, though it presumably extends further south into the unimaged regions of Pluto.^[3] The hummocky terrain may be related to the formation and geological history of Wright Mons and other similar nearby mountains, and have been compared to the funiscular terrain on Saturn's moon Enceladus.^[8]

Cryovolcanism

Soon after Wright Mons's discovery, its young edifice and its resemblance to terrestrial volcanoes that it may be a cryovolcanic structure.^[9][10] However, its unusual structure has made it difficult to determine how Wright Mons formed, and it remains controversial as to what eruptive processes created Wright Mons. The resemblance of the central pit to summit calderas led to early speculation that Wright Mons may have been constructed in a similar manner to the shield volcanoes of the inner planets, erupting from a single central vent.^[11][12] The unusual hummocks have been proposed as forming from rapidly cooled material, similar to pillow lava, or from compression in a manner similar to pāhoehoe lava.^[8] The sinuous radial trenches in Wright Mons's central depression appear to follow the steepest topographical gradient, and as such have been noted as potential cryolava flow channels, but this identification remains uncertain.^[5]

However, Wright Mons's edifice lacks any identifiable lateral flow features or fallout from any hypothetical explosive eruptions. The numerous hummocks that rise on Wright Mons's flanks have been noted as appearing similar to overlapping dacite and andesite lava domes on Earth,^[3] and the two subsidiary summits appear to have been emplaced superficially on Wright Mons's edifice.^[5] A more recent hypothesis proposes that a sequence of dome-forming eruptions merged to form the edifice of Wright Mons and that the caldera-like depression is coincidental, with the eruptions possibly occurring in multiple episodes. Nearby Coleman Mons has been proposed as an analogous, isolated example of the tentative domes which may construct Wright Mons's edifice.^[4]

Wright Mons is a part of a putative cryovolcanic field, bordering two other major cryovolcanic structures, Piccard Mons and Coleman Mons. Hyecho Palus is marked by other irregular depressions, some of which are within smaller topographical edifices.^[3]

See also

• Geology of Pluto – Scientific study of the surface, crust, and interior of the dwarf planet PlutoPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Doom Mons – Mountain on Titan

References

Notes