{"id":20622,"date":"2016-01-11T11:31:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T19:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/pluto-image-reveals-strange-slug-like-object"},"modified":"2017-06-04T20:16:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T03:16:24","slug":"pluto-image-reveals-strange-slug-like-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/pluto-image-reveals-strange-slug-like-object","title":{"rendered":"Pluto image reveals strange slug-like object"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\\'blog-photo\\' href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/pluto-image-reveals-strange-slug-like-object.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>An exposed rock on the dimpled, icy plain recalls a giant slug. The outcropping or lone chunk of debris lies along a demarcation line between different portions of the plain. The line resembles the trail of slime left behind by a slug or snail on the move.<\/p>\n<p>But the line isn\u2019t slime; it marks a unique but subtle pattern on the plain. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/bad_astronomy\/2016\/01\/08\/high_res_mosaic_shows_a_long_strip_of_pluto_s_surface.html\" target=\"_blank\">Zoom out<\/a> and viewers will see Sputnik Planum divided by a series of lines. The icy plain looks like a collection of cells or tectonic plates.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the differentiation is created by a deep-lying heat source. As large regions are gradually warmed, they bulge very slightly before cooling and sinking back. The slow warming and cooling routine creates a cell-like convection pattern.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.upi.com\/Science_News\/2016\/01\/11\/Pluto-image-reveals-strange-slug-like-object\/9451452521486\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An exposed rock on the dimpled, icy plain recalls a giant slug. The outcropping or lone chunk of debris lies along a demarcation line between different portions of the plain. The line resembles the trail of slime left behind by a slug or snail on the move. But the line isn\u2019t slime; it marks a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68878,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20622\/revisions\/68878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}