IMAGE1: The latest spectra from New Horizons Ralph instrument reveal abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from place to place across the frozen surface of Pluto. “We just learned that in the north polar cap, methane ice is diluted in a thick, transparent slab of nitrogen ice resulting in strong absorption of infrared light,” …In one of the visually dark equatorial patches, the methane ice has shallower infrared absorptions indicative of a different texture. “The spectrum appears as if the ice is less diluted in N…or that it has a different texture in that area.”
IMAGE2: New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise – a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet above the surface of the icy body. The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago. Scientists are surprised by the apparent lack of craters. A swath of cliffs and troughs stretching about 600 miles suggests widespread fracturing of Charon’s crust, likely the result of internal geological processes. The image also shows a canyon estimated to be 4 to 6 miles deep. In Charon’s north polar region, the dark surface markings have a diffuse boundary, suggesting a thin deposit or stain on the surface.
IMAGE3: South of the moon’s equator, at the bottom of this image, terrain is lit by the slanting rays of the sun, creating shadows that make it easier to distinguish topography. Even here, however, relatively few craters are visible, indicating a relatively young surface that has been reshaped by geologic activity. In Charon’s north polar region, a dark marking prominent in New Horizons’ approach images is now seen to have a diffuse boundary, suggesting it is a thin deposit of dark material. Underlying it is a distinct, sharply bounded, angular feature; higher resolution images still to come are expected to shed more light on this enigmatic region.
Hydra moon
IMAGE: Hydra fundamentals resolved. LORRI observations revealed an irregularly shaped body characterized by significant brightness variations over the surface. With a resolution of 2 miles per pixel, the LORRI image shows the tiny potato-shaped moon measures 27 miles by 20 miles. Like that of Charon, Hydra’s surface is probably covered with water ice, the most abundant ice in the universe. Observed within Hydra’s bright regions is a darker circular structure with a diameter of approximately 6 miles. Hydra’s reflectivity (the % of incident light reflected from the surface) is intermediate between that of Pluto and Charon. This is taken at 400T miles Image Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-the-ice-plot-thickens/
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-icy-mountains-of-pluto
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/charon-s-surprising-youthful-and-varied-terrain and http://go.nasa.gov/1CECUFM
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