New Horizons

[Frida Space]

I see crater-like depressions in the dark areas.

Yes, the press release (have no link now, but it's no Nasa's homepage) says the dark area is likely billion of years old.

(...) but I see something (structure wise) I've seen elsewhere (...)

Gotta love comparative planetary geology!

[TythosEternal]

Wow!

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto-mountain-range.png

Indeed, that is really, really cool.

Frida, you appear to be quite well plugged in to the NH team. I'm guessing these recent images are part of the regular transmission of data that is occurring post-flyby that are being released as they come in. Do you know how regularly we can expect these releases? 2 images/day of the resolution we've been seeing, perhaps, on average?

[Frida Space]

Frida, you appear to be quite well plugged in to the NH team. I'm guessing these recent images are part of the regular transmission of data that is occurring post-flyby that are being released as they come in. Do you know how regularly we can expect these releases? 2 images/day of the resolution we've been seeing, perhaps, on average?

Yes, I personally know two scientists on New Horizons, one of them is the Atmosphere studies lead, however I promised I wouldn't disturb them for all July as I knew they were going to be assaulted by the media and at the same time by science data. From what I understood from the press conferences, they plan on releasing new "raw" images weekly, with the major release on July 24th, however the transmission of images has stopped as of July 20th and will resume in mid September, so after a few releases I'm guessing they'll have finished all the images available so far.

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Confirmed, next conference Friday:

[Vanamonde]

Moderators don't read this thread for a day or two, and then we find you guys are talking about the Georgian language in the Pluto thread? This is why we can't have nice things!

Back to the thread topic, please.

[lajoswinkler]

The new image confirms the hypothesis that there are very old surfaces being covered with fluffy material. Dark probably because it's full of tholins and cratered because it hasn't seen activity since primordial times. This proves global tectonics on Pluto is dead. Only localized icy crust recycling is possible, although not yet proven.

I've colorized the image (not monochrome anymore) and located its position on the global map.

Open the image in a new tab.

Edited July 22, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[LordFerret]

Yes, the press release (have no link now, but it's no Nasa's homepage) says the dark area is likely billion of years old.

Gotta love comparative planetary geology!

This is what caught my eye, the similarities in the sides/structure of the mountains...

(all the images were posted here in the forums, all I've done is crop and scale 2x / Gimp)

The mount on Ceres...

(from PIA 19586)

The mountains in the recent New Horizons images here...

(from lor_0299175097_0x632_sci_3)

And here...

(from nh-pluto-mountain-range)

Moderators don't read this thread for a day or two, and then we find you guys are talking about the Georgian language in the Pluto thread? This is why we can't have nice things!

Back to the thread topic, please.

Twas only a brief diversion, and carried Pluto in topic with it... effort was made by all parties to do so.

Another nice render lajoswinkler!

[Frida Space]

This is what caught my eye, the similarities in the sides/structure of the mountains...

(all the images were posted here in the forums, all I've done is crop and scale 2x / Gimp)

For what my opinion can be worth, that's a strikingly comparison. Well done, really.

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Liquid would not help to conserve the heat. It would transfer it to the surface by convection.

That's what I thought too, but multiple sources seem to be saying the opposite, that an underground ocean would help retaining primordial/radioactive decay heat.

for the moment the only source I could find is this (paragraph #15), but I remembered reading the same thing on other places too. Not sure exactly how it works though.

[SuperFastJellyfish]

New raw images from LORRI that just popped up while I was perusing the older ones.

Charon:

Pluto:

Edited July 22, 2015 by SuperFastJellyfish
link

[lajoswinkler]

Those indeed look similar to Ceres' mountain. Noice, LordFerret.

Briny ocean would have to transfer heat to the surface. It is not a question of yes or no. That must happen as it's how things work, just like stuff falls on the ground when it's thrown out of the window.

What's so special about it, regarding the conservation of heat, is that the heat removal needed to solidify that ocean would be tremendous, and surface crust does not help with irradiating that heat into space as ice is very good thermal insulator.

These worlds are mostly made out of ices, so even relatively small amounts of heat, compared to terrestrial planets, is sufficient. Heat and activity analogy with magma simply does not stand. Heat involved at terrestrial planets is obviously much less powerful as a tectonic activity factor.

Edit: Something just occured to me. What if some volatiles were "sweated" by some areas? Namely those that look like glacial upwellings locked in motion or just moving very slow? That could explain the distribution patterns.

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Another thing.

Look at how closely mountain ground shapes

match to the brain-like shapes.

Are we looking at the mountain evolution here? Are those shapes mountain "embryos"?

Edited July 22, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[LordFerret]

Is there a higher resolution image available of this region yet? (probably not :/) I'm still very intrigued by what appears to be 'dunes', for example: center section of that image. And right below that, the two 'tongues' which appear to be flows(?). And that obvious crater lower left quadrant, filled with ice. And finally, those two mountain peaks on the right side, upper and lower quadrants... the comparative perimeter bases of each. I'll be marveling over this stuff for a while lol.

[WinkAllKerb'']

look like SE ...

Edited July 27, 2015 by WinkAllKerb''
*grumpf*

[Spock1108]

There seem to be very thin tails geysers everywhere, but they are very thin, almost imperceptible ... little wind or low activity? I marked in red and the direction of the queues with two arms the mouth of the alleged geysers. what do you think?

[lajoswinkler]

I'm trying, but I can't see anything.

[Spock1108]

Here a zoom elaborate ... I increased the contrast ...

[PB666]

I see impact craters in the dark areas of those images, small ones but still.

[Daishi]

Here a zoom elaborate ... I increased the contrast ...

https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t34.0-12/11774711_10204677360120253_2125209638_n.jpg?oh=8fd5cf63edd67e86120a373bfd193791&oe=55B1E36D

Do you mean that very slight white line below the arrow, or the dark (blue) splotches that trail from the crosshairs?

[lajoswinkler]

Oh, I've missed the crosshairs. LOL

Yes, now I see it. Spectacular, if it indeed is that. Every "cell" has one. I'm telling you, those are baby cryovolcanos. The actual mountains that look kind of like barnacles are in exact centers of those cells. There must be a connection.

[Spock1108]

yeeee then I'm not the only one to believe that it is full of small cryovolcan!

Daishi thanks to improved processing;)

By tomorrow should release the RAW of this mosaic, maybe I can identify more ...

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Do you mean that very slight white line below the arrow, or the dark (blue) splotches that trail from the crosshairs?

The red arrow indicates the direction of the wind and tails Geyser ... you've clearly identified in blue ... the white line does not know what is.

[klesh]

Good eyes fellas, thats exactly what it looks like.

[Dkmdlb]

That is incredible. What a fascinating place.

[Aethon]

Stereo image of Pluto. This also works as a 'cross eye' image.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm getting a weird effect for a cross eye. Does anyone else see it?

[lajoswinkler]

I don't get a bulge, I get a dimple. One moment.

Are you sure it is applicable for stereo viewing? I see it rotated. Not really a translation.

[Spock1108]

Actually this photo hides a secret ... the photo on the left is unpublished and not part of a stereo pair ... it is a mosaic of two photos ... is the full picture of Pluto with the resolution that we will have higher resolution , it has a resolution of 2.2 kilometers per pixel.

[Aethon]

Are you sure it is applicable for stereo viewing? I see it rotated. Not really a translation.

[klesh]

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm getting a weird effect for a cross eye. Does anyone else see it?

It works for me. A little smaller than a golf ball floating about 4 inches from my nose.