New Horizons Images Continue to Dazzle

Okay. I am officially surprised. Pluto just got even MORE interesting than ever! Not only is it a colorful-looking icy world, but it’s got the weirdest snakeskin surface features I think I’ve ever seen. As soon as I saw this image, I thought immediately of frozen dunes.

What’s causing them?  Good question.

Nobody knows.

Yet.

You can bet the New Horizons mission scientists are all over these images, trying to explain the kinds of tectonic forces or atmospheric activities that would form such fascinating features. You can see troughs cutting across snaky-looking frozen dune-like features, and some terrain that looks like giant footprints.

My best guess (and it’s only a guess) is that there’s something going on beneath the surface that is softening the ice from below. The frigid temps at the surface lock the softened features into place. Since we know nitrogen is escaping the surface, some of it may well also fall back to form terrain units of some kind.  How that all works and  how you prove it — well, that’s what the New Horizons planetary scientists are working to figure out!

Really detailed images of the surface in Tombaugh Regio also show what looks like the cantaloupe terrain of Triton (at Neptune). This closer look at the smooth, bright surface of the informally named Sputnik Planum (within Tombaugh) shows that it is actually pockmarked by dense patterns of pits, low ridges and scalloped terrain. These could be some more of those dunes I talked about, made of bright ices that are especially susceptible to sublimation and formation of such corrugated ground.

Want to see more of Pluto’s weird terrain? Check out the NASA New Horizons website and the New Horizons mission site — they have the latest and greatest images and explanations about what’s happening out at this distant world.