Pluto Surface Observations 2: NH Post-Encounter Phase, 10 Oct 2015- 1 Feb 2016 Options

[Gladstoner]

For reference, a post by jccwrt mentioned the smudges as seen by MVIC:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=226826

[Gladstoner]

Their sporadic occurrence makes me think outgassing/venting, though evaporation due to local heating would be even more interesting.

Of course, though, Pluto has shown us that features visible near the limits of resolution can be quite deceiving.

[fred_76]

Some colors on the last Lorri images of Pluto, made from the high res Pluto color view with the Herobrine's pano :



Fred

[ZLD]

Here's a full tweened morph of the latest stereo image release.


(click for full resolution HTML5 video - 0.5MB)
(link to full resolution GIF - 18MB)


If I get a chance, I'll post a colorized version of this. I've already played with it a bit and it does help differentiate the terrain better in some places.

I viewed both the anaglyph and the flicker animation for a long while before I went ahead with doing this morph. I went into it expecting little more to be revealed but I don't think either of the previously mentioned fully capture how intensely broken this landscape must be.

One area I find particularly interesting is in the upper right corner. It could just be me seeing things but It would almost seem as if at some point in the past, the darkest patches were some sort of liquid and the fractured terrain has lead to some sort of system of waterliquidfalls.


(click to enlarge)

[Guest_MichaelPoole_*]

Why not water? This area is poor in nitrogen, methane and CO2 ice and exposed water ice signatures were detected nearby https://www.nasa.gov/nh/nh-finds-blue-skies...er-ice-on-pluto . A volcanic eruption or an impact could have melted and evaporated enough water ice to temporarily make the conditions for liquid water possible, or at least a briny ammonia-water or salty "cryolava". If ammonia-water cryolava flowed on Ariel then it can flow on Pluto.

[ZLD]

Well, I wouldn't suggest water as a first possibility. There's a lot of factors that would make that scenario relatively unlikely but you can't rule it out at 0% chance.

[Guest_MichaelPoole_*]

Well, I wouldn't suggest water as a first possibility. There's a lot of factors that would make that scenario relatively unlikely but you can't rule it out at 0% chance.

And what would those factors be? IIRC ammonia-water volcanism created a lot of landforms on the more active of Uranian moons. Pluto's crust is mostly water ice and an impact or volcanic activity can easily evaporate/melt it.

[JohnVV]

the surface coloring makes using SFS a bit " fun"
With what looks like ice frost on rims and the light and dark areas this is basically a mess

the stereo data will be better
lor_0299178893_0x630_sci_4.jpg

3d renderings at a low angle

[Habukaz]

The latest LORRI images are really awesome (didn't get a proper look at them until now). I look forward to when we get the LEISA_HIRES images of this depression (reminiscent of a feature much further south, image 2):



Note how it appears to have erased part of the crater at the top.

(the eye of Pluto aka Elliot Crater will be interesting to get a closer look at, too - if the image track doesn't miss it)

[HSchirmer]

Here's a full tweened morph of the latest stereo image release.

Very nice-
that image really brings out the depth of the craters-
Odd that we've just seen round collapse features on comets in the Chury-Gury imhotep region,
and here is another set of round-deep-walled pits to spark the imagination.

[wildespace]

My mosaic from the new LORRI images, a nice sweep across the globe.




Could anyone please suggest the ground track for this mosiac?

[HSchirmer]

My mosaic from the new LORRI images, a nice sweep across the globe.




Could anyone please suggest the ground track for this mosiac?

Left middle part of Pluto.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[HSchirmer]

One area I find particularly interesting is in the upper right corner. It could just be me seeing things but It would almost seem as if at some point in the past, the darkest patches were some sort of liquid and the fractured terrain has lead to some sort of system of waterliquidfalls.

Interesting parallels to what you see from melting glaciers in Greenland.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/insider/...nland.html

[ZLD]

That certainly has a very similar appearance! Its difficult to rectify the lack of energy currently at Pluto still.

There was a blog post a little while back that confirmed that the red channel is IR, green channel RED (though I think slightly back mixed with red probably) and blue channel BLUE. In the full global MVIC shot, this area is heavily covered with very red patches, meaning they are highly IR reflective. So if we dump the luminance from the IR data, the dark patches we see in the LORRI shots stay dark and they look more lake-like (dried of course). Maybe Pluto really did have a much more energetic past with a much more substantial atmosphere.



It will be very interesting to see LEISA data from this area I think.

[HSchirmer]

That certainly has a very similar appearance!
Its difficult to rectify the lack of energy currently at Pluto still.
...
In the full global MVIC shot, this area is heavily covered with very red patches, meaning they are highly IR reflective.
So if we dump the luminance from the IR data, the dark patches we see in the LORRI shots stay dark and they look more lake-like (dried of course). Maybe Pluto really did have a much more energetic past with a much more substantial atmosphere.

Two follow ups - First, something interesting if you compare the above lorri mosaic to the full disk image-
The plains about 1/3 of the way up the image, between the large impact crater and hummock terrain, are dull grey in lorri, but bright and shiny in the full disk image. There does seem to be a definite "glossly" or clear-coat quality to some areas on Pluto. Depending on the sun angle, they can appear much brighter then they actually are.
Also, it appears that Titan's atmosphere may alternate between thick greenhouse effect with surface lakes, then thin where the atmosphere would be frozen out. IIRC, NASA press releases mentioned that Charon's red polar cap could be due to tholins from Pluto's distended atmosphere, so it's conceivable that Pluto has eras where there's a significant atmosphere. Doesn't have to happen often, but if orbital periods could create a temporary Snowball earth, they might create a temporary slushball Pluto.