New Horizons Pluto System Final Approach, 28 Jun-13 Jul 15 Options

[MarsInMyLifetime]

The "structure" does comprise some possible Morse code characters, depending how you parse the sequence:
_... = B
..._ = V (or the opening notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony)
... _ = ST (or TS walked the opposite direction)

Is there a message here?

More seriously, though, the pattern could indicate deposits sorted by mascons or by standing waves in a magnetosphere.

[ZLD]

Always scale up before alignment.

During the rotation of image 4 and image 5, to ensure the least amount of blurring from the process, I worked with the files at 16384x16384. Everything else is extremely sensitive to this alignment. Got out pen, paper and calculator, got as close as I could but the process still resulted in a small amount of blurring and it still may have been off by several ten thousandths of a degree which can matter in the final product.

Here's what everything looked like after alignment, downscaling and a giant gamma boost:


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Edit
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Apparently the error wasn't in the initial alignment, it was in my final stack of Charon. Normally I do a better error scan of my stacks but this slipped by this time.

Here is a better result of Charon, round again, thankfully.


Typically I process everything twice with two rather different methods, for a second reference. Did not do that this time.g

[alk3997]

For those outside of the U.S. who may not be aware of this, July 4th is Independence Day in the U.S. Since the 4th falls on a Saturday this year, the U.S. federal holiday is today, July 3rd.

So, I don't know if we are going to see any more SOC updates before Sunday.

Andy

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

Here is a better result of Charon, round again, thankfully.

Charon kinda looking like miranda at that angle although probably still artifacting

[ZLD]

Probably some artifacting yes but hopefully just from noise presence. For the version I just posted, I ran through about 6 different processing methods, going all the back to the beginning for each and got nearly exact results each time, with varying degrees of clarity. Even the distorted version has many similar features, although distorted of course. I like to be thorough.

[Julius]

I am still puzzled by the nature of the bright patch just over the equator. Could it represent different ice compostion from the polar region or could it be a cryovolcano?

[nprev]

Nobody has the vaguest idea what any of these albedo variations are caused by yet, Julius. Hopefully we'll know quite soon.

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

Could be just higher/lower terrain like the moon exposing different type of.rock

[alk3997]

I just took a look at the color movie of a Charon orbit of Pluto. It seems the dark band on Pluto is ahead of Charon and the train track terrain is behind Charon. That's awfully coincidental if there isn't a cause and effect between Charon and Pluto.

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/pluto-charon-surfaces-in-color

It will be interesting if the railroad ties' height falls off in inverse square-law integers. In other words, I'm starting to wonder if the dark band and the train tracks aren't a result of tidal interactions with Charon.

Andy

[ZLD]

I don't know of a mechanism but possibly the dark band has moved over time and left remnants. To me, mostly parallel lines, not in the direction of motion, says something magnetic or gravitational is going on.

[Explorer1]

The spacecraft has no magnetometer, so it could only detect a field indirectly (through the particle detectors, etc), correct?

[nprev]

Emily has an updated version of her guide to near-encounter activities.

[Aldebaran]

It's an indication of how low the solar illumination is out there, but at 12 million kilometres separation, Pluto still only has an apparent magnitude of about 1.5, which is similar to that of Castor (Alpha Geminorum) as we see it from Earth, or the minimum magnitude of Saturn.

[Habukaz]

A second New Horizons release today, including a deconvolved 1 July image and showing how the the LORRI images were coloured.

[Gladstoner]

A second New Horizon's release today, including a deconvolved 1 July image and showing how the the LORRI images were coloured.

Goodness. I can't wait to see what those albedo terraces on Pluto are all about.