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NASA's New Horizons Returns Images of the Canyons of Pluto's North Pole (examiner.com)

Posted by timothy on from the santa's-summer-place dept.

MarkWhittington writes: NASA's New Horizon space probe, which flew by Pluto last July, continues to send data and images that amaze and awe. The space agency released an image of Pluto's North Pole taken by the probe's Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The image shows, as has previous images of other regions of the so-called dwarf planet, that Pluto is a diverse world with an active geology. The North Pole of Pluto is characterized by long canyons that are covered in yellow methane ice. The canyons show how the dwarf planet had, and perhaps still has active tectonics..

23 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. We must not let the Soviets expand the canyon gap by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Funny

    We must make them AMERICAN canyons!

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  2. Neat! by CaptainLard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To break up the usual parade of strained jokes on science articles, how bout posting your favorite cool new thing that we learned from New Horizons? To start...

    Pluto has a large mass of frozen nitrogen on its surface that supports many "hills". These may be composed of water ice (less dense than N ice) that float on the slowly shifting nitrogen ice "sea" like an iceberg!

    1. Re:Neat! by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My favorite thing is that Pluto is so cold, that it has water ice "rocks" that are harder than rocks on Earth. Just when we think we've figured out everything, we find something else in the Universe that completely blows away our expectations (in the best possible way).

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    2. Re:Neat! by jIyajbe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Agreed! Also, volcanoes on Charon that erupt with water-based lavas! https://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history/

      --
      "Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
    3. Re:Neat! by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      " your favorite cool new thing that we learned from New Horizons? "

      My vote goes to the finding of active tectonics. This implies heat, which is coming from...where?

    4. Re:Neat! by Ranbot · · Score: 2

      Honestly, that there are any significant geologic processes at all, much less ones that can form these immense and varied landscapes. Pluto and Charon are so small and so far away the Sun that I think most scientists expected Pluto and Charon to be almost featureless balls of ice apart from a few meteor craters.

      This also proves planet-like objects (whatever the classification) can have stable, self-sustaining, internal sources of energy and/or volcanism independent of the energy of our Sun or another star. We fixate on "Goldilocks" planets like Earth stable enough to sustain life, we should probably expand the search possibilities.

    5. Re:Neat! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Dark Heat.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    6. Re:Neat! by avgjoe62 · · Score: 1

      Water... lava... ?

      That's watava for short.

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      How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?

    7. Re:Neat! by Ranbot · · Score: 1

      My vote goes to the finding of active tectonics. This implies heat, which is coming from...where?

      I think the most popular theory is gravity from Pluto's moon, Charon, pulls on the planet deferentially as it orbits creating internal friction and heat, in the same way the Earth's moon is theorized to drive the Earth's internal heat, mantle convection, and tectonics. Charon orbits Pluto very closely and is relatively large compared to Pluto. Some have even suggested calling Pluto and Charon a "binary planet." At any rate, they exert strong gravitational forces on each other, and based on the features observed it could be driving internal heat systems on both Pluto and Charon.

    8. Re:Neat! by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      in the same way the Earth's moon is theorized to drive the Earth's internal heat, mantle convection, and tectonics

      So not at all, then?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    9. Re:Neat! by Bengie · · Score: 1

      This lava will freeze you instantly!

  3. devilish comment by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    that's a nice looking planet. ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  4. Meteors by jIyajbe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was surprised at the number of (what appear to be) meteor craters; I knew that Pluto is in the Kuiper belt, but I always had the impression that the density of that belt was really low. OTOH, Pluto has been wandering around that region for billions of years, so I guess that adds up over time. Very cool!!

    Plaudits to the New Horizons team! Yay science!

    --
    "Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
    1. Re:Meteors by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Why do you think the density of debris is really low there? It is a "belt" after all.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Meteors by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Because space is really empty? Even in the most dense part of these belts and clouds, objects are still millions of km apart from each other.

  5. Re:VERTICAL canyons? Is there any other kind? by jIyajbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I believe they mean "from the top of the image downward towards the bottom of the image".

    --
    "Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
  6. Looks so young by Sam36 · · Score: 1

    For being billions of years old, one would think it would be cratered all to hell. Perhaps it ain't so old at all.

    1. Re:Looks so young by tnk1 · · Score: 2

      It is likely being resurfaced with tectonic or volcanic activity. Of course, because Pluto is so cold the "vulcanism" is actually things like water "volcanos", but the resurfacing effect would be very similar as the water will solidify into a smooth surface on Pluto much like cooling lava on Earth and warmer planets.

  7. Have Spacesuit Will Travel by Cornwallis · · Score: 2

    I can imagine Kip and Peewee slogging through that landscape...

    1. Re:Have Spacesuit Will Travel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Kip needed highly insulated "elephant shoes" on his space suit to keep his feet warm of course during his perilous walk on Pluto :-) In the book Heinlein indicated that Kip saw volcanoes on the horizon due to the stress on the planet as it "warmed" -- in 1958 when the book was written Pluto was still moving towards the sun and warming up slightly. He never said what gave off the light just that it lit up the sky a bit. Since he was clear that the snow was nitrogen, ice was methane and not water, etc. I choose to think he knew it wouldn't actually be liquid stone giving off the glow but reflected light off of jets of gas. Even in his "young adult" books like Have Spacesuit Will Travel Heinlein was always about good science and was apparently spot on about the volcanoes. I loved that book and still reread it about once a year. Highly recommended even for older readers.

    2. Re:Have Spacesuit Will Travel by Cornwallis · · Score: 1

      It is wonderful. I first read it 54 years ago and picked up a new copy last year. It still holds up as a good read.

  8. Buffering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Whenever I hear about another "discovery" of NH I have to remind myself that although the fly-bus happened weeks ago, it's gonna take forever for the spacecraft to actually send us all those pictures. It's like watching a movie over dial-up: buffering... buffering... buffering...

    I'd lose my mind waiting for all that data. I hope the NH staff is having a great time unpacking their Christmas presents over time. They are well-deserved!

    1. Re:Buffering by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because of the slowness of the data link and the fact that NH is barreling away from Earth at high speed, the strategy has been to send all the JPGs first, then the Raw images. It is these, trickling back, that we are seeing now, that are giving us these new revelations so long after the flyby,

      When all the high-res images have been uploaded, NH can be repurposed for a new flyby in the Oort Cloud.