The variations of ice deposits on pluto could be related to composition or perhaps more significant local topography that might explain the persistence of the brightest region on the equator.

Hum, not sure. I thing it's done. Have to be sent 4,5 hours earlier.

The first impression I got when viewing the 'teaser' image was that it looked like it was done in 'sepia' mode. The color is very interesting. Hopefully we will get another sample planetoid thing as NH plows ahead thru the Kuiper Belt.

plus, NH is unusual in that for the radiooccultation the spacecraft listens instead of transmitting

This is a little bit old - in the light of the new higher res amazing pics - but still maybe of interest. I had too much fun working on the image and then colourizing ......so I missed the new pics as I just lost track of time!! ……Hᴜɢʜ….ツ

Yep, colourised. The first thing I did was convert to grayscale.




I like that presentation. But the South pole of Triton is on it's left, and the North pole of Pluto is on the top.

An alternate treatment would be to orient the Triton image with the pole on top on a basis of similar climatic zones (attached):


--Bill

Oh, duh; didn't realize that. Thanks!

High passed and level streched !

Yes, both the occultations are over. Charon was around 1410 GMT. Pluto about 1.5 hours earlier.

Guys would we NEVER images of Cerbero and Stige?
And the south polar region of Pluto?
M ThankS.

The newest pictures are amazing!

What surprises me most is the lack of craters. I was aware that Pluto had an atmosphere that potentially precipitated snow but I expected there to be a similar amount of craters to Mars. I didn't really want to get my hopes up.

But instead it turns out Pluto has only about twenty of thirty craters on the entire approach hemisphere visible from this distance! And the love heart shaped feature is looking far smoother than I expected. I can't wait for the flyby data to come back to Earth!

Gotta remember that Mars is right next door to the asteroid belt. For that matter, the inner Solar System has a lot more junk than the outer environs, plus much higher potential relative impact velocities.

There was an interesting glint off of the terrain near the head of the whale.

Going back to the Charon side which we will never see again (except in Charon light) I find the terrain extraordinary. Not to get too technical here, but the "wrinkles" look like MC Escher lizards. What are they? More interesting, the feature at 4 o'clock looks very different in this image, compared to others where it looks more crater-like. In the blow up on the far right, I have highlighted something that reminds me of the way Europa's cracks and surface displacements often overlay one another. Is the lighter material (highlighted as yellow) volcanic flows across the dark line (highlighted as red) that extends out from the circular feature? Others have already noted the doughnut-like look of several of Pluto's presumed craters.
--Charles

Nice 9throck, you've even got details in the atmosphere