Why Is Pluto Lacking A Lot Of Craters? A Colorado Astronomer Explains

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<p>(Courtesy of NASA)</p>
<p>This is the last image taken by the New Horizon probe before it flew past Pluto and its moon Charon.</p>
icy flow on Pluto
In this image of Pluto taken by New Horizons, swirl-shaped patterns suggest that a surface layer of exotic ices has flowed around obstacles and into depressions, much like glaciers on Earth.

The first pictures of Pluto sent by the New Horizons spacecraft last month took scientists by surprise. They had expected Pluto’s surface to be riddled with impact craters. It's not. That raises a question: Why did scientists expect to see so many craters in the first place? And why aren’t they there?

Doug Duncan, director of Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium, joined Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner to discuss Colorado-based research that helps predict impacts in space and a hypothesis that liquid water is seeping into and masking Pluto's craters.