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

[Guest_alex_k_*]

Pluto, 9 of July 22:32:25, x5:


Charon, 9 of July 22:32:25, x5:


North is up.

[belleraphon1]

Dark in the outer solar system generally means hydrocarbons. A carbon pole on an ammoniated ice crust. Pretty cool.
Coolest part is that we will KNOW. Or have just enough info to spin a web of further questions.

I really do not see this as an end to classical exploration. We are opening a new door. It never ends...

Craig

ADMIN Note: A few posts moved to the flyby/exploration thread.

[water]

Here's my go at stacking and processing.

[neo56]

Here is my take on LORRI pictures of 9 July, 22h35 UTC:

[MahFL]

Particle and plasma data down.



https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons/status/...8027008/photo/1

[Julius]

New image release. If it were on earth I would definitely have said those mysterious famous dark spots would resemble lakes!

ADMIN Note: Please post the link when you announce this. Thanks.

[volcanopele]

I'm with you, Julius, those almost looks like lakes... I know they're not... but wow...

[Habukaz]

A link is always nice: http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/new-hori...-puzzling-spots

[stevelu]

I just made some very loud noises at my computer.

Where did y'all put the swear jar??

Hieroglyphics comes to my mind faster than lakes

[Paolo]

I remember when the Pluto Express envisaged two spacecraft flying by half a Plutonian day apart. I wish it went that way!

[volcanopele]

So now I'm thinking volcanism, maybe? Trying to think what would be lava on Pluto, and would also solidify as dark material...

[scalbers]

At least some of the angular features on the left hand side of the image should still be in view tomorrow and hopefully the close encounter view of the whale feature will have some similar serrations on its boundary. We'll have to extrapolate this info to what is going on in the 4 spot zone here. Of course the Charonshine may illuminate things a bit further.

[nprev]

Very strong impression of 'cantaloupe terrain' al a Triton in the bright areas. Don't seem like artifacts at this resolution.

The dark stuff...more than passing strange. Borders aren't nearly as sharp as they seemed to be in the more distant views. There's a grayish transition area in some parts to the white areas, which makes me think of aerosol dispersion.

[Julius]

It is evident that some fluid has flowed from underneath the ice down onto the dark areas. 'Tears of pluto 'if you like.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Awesome new image and still no clear sign of craters on Pluto. Meanwhile, on Charon the terminator is becoming slightly irregular, probably due to shadows and not albedo. Here is my version of the 2015-07-09 22:42 images. This is a stack of two images enlarged by a factor of 4. A third image taken 5 minutes later is not included in the stack since in this short time Pluto's size increased enough to blur a stacked image slightly had it been included.



There's nothing new on Pluto here compared to other versions of this image posted here but now Charon is probably starting to show signs of topography. There is a slight 'irregularity' on the terminator at bottom center that is also present in all three original JPGs. The most straightforward reason for this is shadows due to a topographic feature, probably a crater.