Scientists Captivated By Pluto’s Emerging Geological Wonders

universetoday.com ^ | on July 10, 2015 | Bob King

[BenLurkin]

Day by day, new images appear showing an ever clearer view of a world we inexplicably love. Call it a dwarf planet. Call it a planet. It’s the unknown, and we can’t help but be drawn there.

Pluto made history when it was discovered in 1930. In 2015, it’s doing it all over again. Check out the new geology peeping into view.I’m reminded of the early explorers who shoved off in wooden ships in search of land across the water. After a long and often perilous journey, the mists would finally clear and the dark outline of land take form in the distance. It’s been 9 1/2 years since our collective Pluto voyage began

...

Today’s image release clearly shows a world growing more geologically diverse by the day.

“We’re close enough now that we’re just starting to see Pluto’s geology,” said New Horizons program scientist Curt Niebur, on NASA’s website. Niebur, who’s keenly interested in the gray area just above the whale’s “tail” feature, called it a “unique transition region with a lot of dynamic processes interacting, which makes it of particular scientific interest.”

[BenLurkin]

Tantalizing signs of geology on Pluto are revealed in this image from New Horizons taken on July 9, 2015 from 3.3 million miles (5.4 million km) away. This annotated version shows the large dark feature nicknamed “the whale” that straddles Pluto’s equator, a swirly band and a curious polygonal outline. At lower is a reference globe showing Pluto’s orientation in the image, with the equator and central meridian in bold. Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI

[BenLurkin]

ping

[blueunicorn6]

“Worm sign, Usul.”

[Army Air Corps]

I am waiting to hear what Richard C. Hoagland has to say...

[SkyDancer]

Still slightly blurry. Will there be sharper images?

[samtheman]

Icy surface; rocky core.

[BenLurkin]

Chances are — he will see much evidence of alien infrastructure.

[Army Air Corps]

Cue the Giorgio A. Tsoukalos meme! :-)

[Army Air Corps]

Yes. Remember, these images are the best that we have had of Pluto to date.

[DannyTN]

[JimSEA]

I had never expected such complex geological features. Are they artifacts of a huge collision or a mix of different events? This is really exciting.

[Lazamataz]

Looks like a company logo and a slogan (in an alien language).

What if it turns out it reads:

SENTIENCE-SEEDING CORPORATION... “Creating Sentient Life On Viable Planets Since 182,281.45 Solar Cycles!”

[Lazamataz]

I had never expected such complex geological features.

Alien alphabets and pictogryphs are complex.

Just sayin'.

[wally_bert]

Gamelons?

[ETL]

The article doesn’t seem to mention the distance from Earth to Pluto. I looked it up and it’s roughly 3 BILLION miles. That’s just over 2 light-HOURS away (light travels at 186,000 miles/sec).

[Kickass Conservative]

Pluto looks like it was rode hard and put away wet, much like Hillary Clinton.

[JimSEA]

It’s too bad Andre Norton passed away. She had her characters searching for exotic alien artifacts throughout the galaxy. I’m sure she wound have had a death beam waiting any explorers.

[Army Air Corps]

If so, then it is time to rebuild the Yamato.

[GoneSalt]

Burma-Shave ;)

[Larry Lucido]