Burney is the second-largest known impact basin on the

dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the ...

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

. With a diameter of over and possibly up to , it is the second-largest known impact basin on Pluto, after the

Sputnik Planitia Sputnik Planitia (formerly Sputnik Planum) is a large, partially glaciated basin on Pluto. About in size, Sputnik Planitia is partially submerged in large, bright glaciers of solid nitrogen, nitrogen ice. Named after Earth's first artificial s ...

basin. Burney is the only known impact basin on Pluto with visible multiple rims and is thus classified as a multi-ringed impact basin, though its rings have been heavily eroded due to Burney's age.

Discovery and naming

As with the rest of Pluto's surface features, Burney was first seen on the ''

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

'' flyby of

and its

five moons The Five Moons were five Native American ballerinas from the U.S. state of Oklahoma who achieved international recognition during the 20th century. The five women were Myra Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Mar ...

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

to the dwarf planet's discoverer

Clyde Tombaugh Clyde William Tombaugh (; February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer best known for discovering Pluto, the first object to be identified in what would later be recognized as the Kuiper belt, in 1930. Raised on farms in ...

in 1930. The name was officially approved by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU) on 8 August 2017.

Geology

Burney is the second-largest impact feature known on Pluto, after the massive basin that encloses the glacial plains of

. It is ancient, with an estimated age of at least 4 billion years old, and heavily eroded. The structure of Burney resembles that of the

Mare Orientale Mare Orientale (Latin ''orientāle'', the "eastern sea") is a lunar mare. It is located on the western border of the near side and far side of the Moon, and is difficult to see from an Earthbound perspective. Images from spacecraft have revea ...

basin on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

, 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 ~ to ~. The peak rings of Burney are discontinuous and crenulated, standing roughly high. The central depression of Burney is approximately across and roughly deep. Within Burney are numerous smaller impact craters, one of which has been officially named ''Hardaway''. Much of Burney's basin floor is glaciated. Its surface is covered in bright, coarse grains of nitrogen ice mixed with water ice. Burney's peak rings are coated in

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

ice, indicating that methane preferentially condenses on the high-altitude mountain peaks that comprise the concentric rings. By contrast, Burney's floor is poor in methane ice and much smoother than the surrounding plains, possibly from differences in erosion or from heavier glaciation. Several dark streaks similar to those found in Sputnik Planitia were observed in and around Burney. Models of Pluto's climate indicate that Burney likely experiences downward-flowing katabatic winds. Burney is surrounded by 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 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 an ancient period of heavy regional glaciation. The age of the washboard terrain appears to only marginally postdate the

impact event An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal effe ...

that created Burney.

Notes

References

{{Pluto Surface features of Pluto Discoveries by New Horizons

Discovery and naming

Geology

See also

Notes

References