In deciphering and analyzing the latest images released by the New Horizons probe, what we can see is, frankly, amazing.
If there is one thing we always find when we look for the first time in nearly a solar system object is something surprising. Or a few things. Lots and lots of surprising a few things.
New images and data were unveiled Friday, July 17th by the New Horizons probe, now well beyond Pluto and its moon system. We always get the drip, since we are 5 billion kilometers of the stage, but what we can see so far is, frankly, amazing. In the words of the great chief of the mission, Alan Stern, during last Friday’s press conference:
“I am perhaps biased, but I think that the solar system has kept us the best for last” .
A picture of the moon of Pluto, Charon, released on Thursday, has a strange feature that lots of people are racking their brains to understand what it is. Consider this:
Photo by NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
Already, just imagine, the images that come to us from New Horizons are compressed JPEGs, a “first glimpse” terribly promising. The probe is still working hard to take measurements of Pluto and its moons, and she can not do it at the same time sending images to Earth. High-resolution data takes much longer to arrive on Earth, so they must wait quietly on the hard drive of New Horizons as schmilblick everything is complete.
So do not make attention to large pixels you see on the pictures and take the field.
This closeup of Charon, taken Tuesday at approximately 79,000 kilometers of its surface, shows an area about 300 kilometers long a land of contrasts. Overall, it looks like a lunar sea, but dotted with craters. Some seem to have central rocky outcrops, which is not uncommon in major impacts. The channels are like gorillas, these collapsed lava tubes that we can also see on the Moon. But I’m not so sure. This is perhaps fault lines, cracks that form where the surface is fragmented (we see this kind of phenomenon on Mercury, where the crust is narrowed at the time of contraction of the planet) .
But the real mystery is the weird thing that appears on the top left. What the FUCK is that?
It looks like a mountain in the middle of a depression. What is very strange. Already how a mountain could have formed on Charon? And then, why the surrounding area would she have dug? For scientists of New Horizons, this is a mountain in a ditch.
On the first images of Pluto received, we also have mountains, but it is not a great help, since we do not know how they were able to form. Oddly, it does not seem to be either other recognizable element about this stuff on Charon. A low speed impact with another object is perfectly improbable, but as is erecting a mountain depths. Ultimately, the ditch is easier to explain; it is likely to collapse, excavation of the area around the mountain due to its weight. But the phenomenon is it produced with the formation of the mountains or after?
Mystery of mysteries.
Speaking of Pluto mountains, we have enough data to generate the simulation of a flight over Tombaugh Regio, the heart-shaped area on the surface.
Phenomenal! Some of the mountains are more than 3 kilometers high and do not dépareilleraient in the Rockies … unless they are made of ice and not granite, like the mountains of my native region.
Unbelievable. This area was called Montes Norgay, the Nepali sherpa guide name of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first mountaineer to climb Everest. It’s cute.
The second part of the video shows the frozen plains, north of the mountains. The close-up view of the area, the Plain Sputnik, is simply staggering:
Again, ignore the pixels due to the compression … it’s an ice field parceled! The segments are between 20 and 40 km large, separated by troughs. We do not know what it is. Perhaps is it traces contraction, when the surface has tightened (such as cracks that form when water evaporates in the desert). But it can also involve convection cells! If the material in the surface is liquid, it is possible that the warmest stuff to low back and that the coldest stuff collapse. Personally, I’m skeptical, but we have not too much info on the thing. Who knows
The channels are interesting; in some places, it looks like the darker material that is stacked. And right, there is a cluster of hills that follow the crevices. Is it something that has accumulated, or a solid which resisted erosion? There are also picketing at the bottom right of this region, but the scale is so small we can not see more with JPEG compression. Not until the resolution to try to solve this mystery.
The environment of these plains also interested, the general structure of the terrain. Here is a small animation that shows in Tombaugh Regio:
Ooooooh, that’s interesting. It almost seems that there was a huge flood, flow from the north and reached the foot of the mountains. I bet my shirt that’s the case here. similar phenomena is seen on the Moon .
Imagine that the lack of craters, little is deduced that this area is young, probably less than 100 million years. Look at the picture of Charon above and note the craters. If they are not on the Plain Sputnik is because there was and craters that any event has leveled its surface. This is consistent (without proving it) of a flood.
This area of Pluto is also rich in carbon ice , as indicated Ralph, a measuring instrument New Horizons. It is not as strong concentration elsewhere on Pluto. Is this related to the strangeness of the land? May be. Maybe not. Still mysteries!
Taking Nix!
Nix is one of the smaller moons of Pluto, and we do not see much when you look at 600,000 kilometers away . But we still see stuff. The image shows that it is about 40 km large and, according to other data, it would be extended and would possibly 80 kilometers long. For now, we can not say much more, but it should be noted that in April, Pluto itself like this for New Horizons. We will not really Nix best picture, but this proves far we have come in a short time. Hell, we do not even know this existed moon there are still a few years!
I want you leave it, on a beautiful and moving portrait of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon:
This is actually a mosaic two images taken Monday, July 13 and Tuesday 14 and assembled to the size, distance, orientation, and brightness of the two objects are close to reality. You can see how Charon Pluto is darker, and how much they are close to one another. These pictures were taken when the spacecraft approached the system … but at the time I write this, New Horizons is already 3 million kilometers behind Pluto, and lead of more than a million kilometers per day.
We will send the sensor data for at least one year and at present, we have between 1 and 2% of what it contains in its hard drives . And already see all that has been found! Imagine: we still remain 50 times more to do
I go back to my quote Stern and his “best for last!”. If I like his formula, I must contradict my friend. Pluto is (perhaps) one of the largest objects in the Kuiper Belt, and there are still millions there. And there are still so many asteroids, comets and moons unexplored … and we still did not make the orbit of Uranus or Neptune, it just happened off. Hell, even long missions as Cassini have only barely scratched the surface of these extraordinary worlds.
All these worlds belong to us. We need to explore.
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