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dwarf planets, New Horizons mission, planetary science, planets, Pluto

Snakeskin Pluto

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New Horizons Images Continue to Dazzle

In this extended color image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, rounded and bizarrely textured mountains, informally named the Tartarus Dorsa, rise up along Pluto’s day-night terminator and show intricate but puzzling patterns of blue-gray ridges and reddish material in between. This view, roughly 330 miles (530 kilometers) across, combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14, 2015, and resolves details and colors on scales as small as 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers). Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Pluto sports rounded and bizarrely textured mountains, informally named the Tartarus Dorsa, rise up along Pluto’s day-night terminator and show intricate but puzzling patterns of blue-gray ridges and reddish material in between. This viewi is rougnly 330 miles (530 kilometers) across, combines blue, red and infrared images and resolves details and colors on scales as small as 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers).
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

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!

Here’s the sharpest image to date of Pluto’s varied terrain. In this 75-mile (120-kilometer) section of the surface, textured terrain units surround two isolated ice mountains. Courtesy NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

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.

 

dwarf planets, New Horizons mission, planets, Pluto

Your Moment of Pluto Zen

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Flying Over Pluto

Majestic Mountains and Frozen Plains on Pluto! Courtesy NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Imagine if you were in an aircraft soaring over Pluto, and you had your high-res camera out, taking images. THIS is what you would see!  Okay,  so this image was taken just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, by the New Horizons spacecraft.  It’s from a distance of 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles), so much higher than the normal altitudes most of our terrestrial airliners fly. In fact, if Pluto had a space station, I think THIS would be the view!  It seems very peaceful and zen-like, yet at the same time, the existence of those mountains and frozen plains belies activity deep within the planet. What it is remains to be understood and explained by the mission scientists as they study the pipeline of data flooding in from the spacecraft over the next 15 months.

The image was taken looking back at the planet with the Sun in the background, and caught what looks for all the world like a sunset view of any mountain range here on Earth.  However, the difference between Earth and Pluto is stark: those rugged, icy mountains and flat plains are made of solid ice.  Sputnik Planum is the smooth expanse to the right. On the left is a mountain range with peaks up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet) high. Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes is on the skyline.  This hazy scene shows that Pluto’s atmosphere is still very much in existence (some scientists expect it to largely “freeze out” to the surface at some point as Pluto gets farther from the Sun).  The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto.

Enjoy the view, folks!  THIS is why we sent New Horizons to this distant, beautiful, frozen, and amazing planet! Check out the New Horizons image pages here and here for more views.