A scientist is quoted in today's BBC article as saying, "Water-ice at Pluto temperatures is strong enough to hold up big mountains,"?

Question

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33543383

I know that there are different types of ice...but I guess I assumed that "ice in space" was typical ice - that is, ice-I.  What is it about the Pluto ice that makes it structurally so much stronger than ice-I, that is:  typical Earth ice?

Annsan_In_Him · Answer

Pardon me for commenting as I am not a scientist in any shape or form, but what I heard from BBC coverage was more about there being mountains of ice on Pluto, not that the ice on Pluto could hold up mountains. Then, watching The Sky At Night, BBC4 on Sunday night, the talk from the NASA HQ seemed to be this idea of mountains of ice. At minus 230 degrees they anticipated the ice being as solid as rock.

The photos were wonderful to behold, especially the colour ones, showing Sharon to be of similar appearance. How they got all that technology and timing together to get photos beamed back to Earth is astounding - a wonderful achievement.

Randy P · Answer

Probably just that it's cold.

Ever try to break up ice when the temperature is far below 0?

Morningfox · Answer

Pluto is about -233 to -223 C. At low pressure, water-ice would be Ice-XI (ortorhombic). At very high pressures, above 2000 atm, you get ice-IX, then ice-II, ice-XV, ice-VIII, ice-X, and finally (above 610,000 atm) ice-XI (hexagonal). What you don't get: ice-I, ice-III, ice-IV.

Since the molecules of ice-IX are very ordered, it should be very strong.

A scientist is quoted in today's BBC article as saying, "Water-ice at Pluto temperatures is strong enough to hold up big mountains,"?

3 Answers