Category Archives: Pluto

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.

New Horizons mission, Pluto

The Pluto Pipeline Resumes

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Images and Data Come Tumbling in from the Kuiper Belt

Pluto in the distance, with Charon. July 3, 2015. Courtesy New Horizons mission.
Pluto in the distance, with Charon. July 3, 2015. Courtesy New Horizons mission.

What to make of this distant planet, Pluto?

It was, for so many years, an afterthought in the solar system — not very well respected, probably because it was so far away. Too dim to see. Discovered by an American who didn’t even have a Ph.D. when he found it. How could something so small and insignificant be very important? Not that long ago (in the late 20th century), people really didn’t take it that seriously. Not until the first glimmerings of a mission to this distant world began to take shape.

This 220-mile (350-kilometer) wide view of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft includes dark, ancient heavily cratered terrain; bright, smooth geologically young terrain; assembled masses of mountains; and an enigmatic field of dark, aligned ridges that resemble dunes; its origin is under debate. The smallest visible features are 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) in size. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Now, New Horizons has done her job. In a few short hours in July, it captured the images and data it’s now sending back to the science teams. The latest ones started flowing in over Labor Day weekend, and we’re starting to see them — along with scientist commentaries — on the mission Web sites. We’re finding out what a weird and different place Pluto is. Nope, it’s not a “dreg” of the solar system, anymore. It could well be the key to understanding not just all the objects “out there”, but also unlocking some secrets of solar system formation that only Pluto can tell.

That’s the way science works. There’s always a hidden secret that gets revealed, something that scientists might have overlooked or been distracted from by other, more dazzling finds. The devil, as we so often like to say, is in the details.

And, wow — are there details in those views! Mountains, cracked surfaces, possible dunes, tholin-covered ices, and much more. As Alan Stern said in today’s press release, “If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there.”

So, now the job of explaining how it all got there begins. Mountains rising up out of the icy surface, possibly triggering nitrogen ice flows. What look like possible “glacier cut” valleys across the plains — what’s causing that action? What interior process could be at work in such a cold place? And, how can all this happen on a world where the atmosphere is escaping so rapidly?

Pluto is giving us WAY more than we bargained for. Today’s headline is correct: it’s complicated. And that’s the best kind of science I know of. It stimulates the wit and intellect, and keeps everybody on their toes.