APOD: Pluto in Enhanced Color (2015 Aug 31)

[APOD Robot]

Pluto in Enhanced Color

Explanation: Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different, with the leftmost lobe Sputnik Planum also appearing unusually smooth. New Horizons now continues on beyond Pluto, will continue to beam back more images and data, and will soon be directed to change course so that it can fly past asteroid 2014 MU69 in 2019 January.

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[Tszabeau]

Does anyone have an idea on how the spiral structures inside many of the craters formed? Like the larger crater at about 7:45. If you zoom-in there are like structures in some of the smaller ones too. I don't recall seeing that in craters elswhere.

[Chris Peterson]

Does anyone have an idea on how the spiral structures inside many of the craters formed? Like the larger crater at about 7:45. If you zoom-in there are like structures in some of the smaller ones too. I don't recall seeing that in craters elswhere.

I don't see spiral structure, although I do see something that could be confused for that. What I see is a complex crater with sloped walls, a flat annular base, and a central peak. It's shadowed in a way that creates an illusion of a spiral. But I think it's just that- an illusion. I don't see any craters in this image that have what I'd call spiral structures in them.

[Asterhole]

I vote that we petition the International Astronomical Union to reinstate Pluto as the officially the Ninth Planet of our Solar System!

[bystander]

Should we also re-add Ceres? It was a planet before Pluto (as were Pallas, Juno, and Vesta). How about Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, Sedna ...

[Chris Peterson]

Should we also re-add Ceres? It was a planet before Pluto (as were Pallas, Juno, and Vesta). How about Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, Sedna ...

Yup. All of them.

[nostereoplease]

todays pic is much better than the lousy stereo image you posted awhile back.
thank you.

[Steve Dutch]

The mountains on Pluto look more like detached blocks than tectonic mountains or impact basin rims. The chain of dark patches on the lower left of the Heart look like they might have split away from the large solid dark area to their left. In both cases, I suspect gravity sliding (think Heart Mountain) rather than deep-seated tectonic processes.

[Jim Armstrong]

The feature in question is where the inflation needle was inserted.
If Pluto was simply filled some more, it would be more likely to satisfy those who deny it planet status

[starsurfer]

I'm so happy that we've been able to see how Pluto truly looks! I hope we get to see closeup images of Nix and Hydra and its other recently discovered moons.

[geckzilla]

Should we also re-add Ceres? It was a planet before Pluto (as were Pallas, Juno, and Vesta). How about Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, Sedna ...

Yup. All of them.

Titan For Planethood

[Solar]

I see that you all are avoiding the term “Kuiper Belt Object” for 2014 MU69, calling it simply an asteroid, which I know emphasizes the expectation that they are not fundamentally different from “Asteroid Belt Objects”. However, I’ve always preferred the term “icy asteroid” to distinguish them in an obvious and simple way.

[bystander]

Should we also re-add Ceres? It was a planet before Pluto (as were Pallas, Juno, and Vesta). How about Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Quaoar, Sedna ...

Yup. All of them.

I'm not sure Juno qualifies. Pallas and Vesta are questionable (and possibly Hygiea). Ceres is deserving, as is Charon and other TNOs.

[Solar]

Pluto is not the ninth planet. That’s Pallas:

7) Uranus 1781
8) Ceres 1801
9) Pallas 1802
10) Juno 1804
11) Vesta 1807
12) Astraea 1845
13) Neptune 1846
14) Hebe 1847
…

Pluto is way, way down the list!

Remember, these are all planets, objects that orbit the Sun. It’s just a question of whether they are major, dwarf, or minor.

[Boomer12k]

Does anyone have an idea on how the spiral structures inside many of the craters formed? Like the larger crater at about 7:45. If you zoom-in there are like structures in some of the smaller ones too. I don't recall seeing that in craters elswhere.

I don't see spiral structure, although I do see something that could be confused for that. What I see is a complex crater with sloped walls, a flat annular base, and a central peak. It's shadowed in a way that creates an illusion of a spiral. But I think it's just that- an illusion. I don't see any craters in this image that have what I'd call spiral structures in them.

I agree....Concentric Circles...like a target, but not really "spirals", an inward twisting. Many of the craters do not have the lighter material...Ice? Snow? Whatever. But the one larger crater with the gashes to the left of it....DOES somewhat have a suggestion of spiral...but I think it is not a complete spiral.

anyway....this is an awesomely more detailed, and sharp composite image. Amazing. And fun to speculate and even "see" things.

The Valentine Planet...not Hades at all....
:---[===] *

[Boomer12k]

Pluto is not the ninth planet. That’s Pallas:

7) Uranus 1781
8) Ceres 1801
9) Pallas 1802
10) Juno 1804
11) Vesta 1807
12) Astraea 1845
13) Neptune 1846
14) Hebe 1847
…

Pluto is way, way down the list!

Remember, these are all planets, objects that orbit the Sun. It’s just a question of whether they are major, dwarf, or minor.

But as with Pluto, they were RE-classified, and are considered asteroids...especially when considering how far out of the Ecliptic Plane that it is...there are no missions that are planned to go there for this reason, as the energy required it too great.

:---[===] *

[ta152h0]

keep the cameras rolling as the beast blasts thru the KBO zone. Might see something unexpected, like a big blob

[neufer]

keep the cameras rolling as the beast blasts thru the KBO zone.

Might see something unexpected, like a big blob

---

<<The Blob (a.k.a. The Molten Meteor) is an independently made, 1958 De Luxe color, American horror/science fiction film directed by Irvin Yeaworth. In the style of American International Pictures, Paramount Pictures released the film as a double feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

The film stars a 27-year-old Steve McQueen in his debut leading role as a teenager, and Aneta Corsaut, as his co-star. The plot depicts a growing corrosive alien amoeba that crashes from outer space in a meteorite and eats and dissolves citizens in the small community of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. When the diner is set ablaze the manager uses a CO2 fire extinguisher on the fire. Steve notices that this causes the Blob to recoil, then remembers that the creature also retreated from the freezer. Shouting in hopes of being picked up on the open phone line, Steve manages to tell Dave about the Blob's vulnerability to cold. Jane's father, Mr. Martin (Elbert Smith), knows there are 20 such extinguishers at the school, and leads Steve's friends to the high school to retrieve them. Returning, the brigade of extinguisher-armed students and police first drive the Blob away from the diner, then freeze it, saving Steve, Jane and the others.

Dave requests an Air Force heavy-lift cargo aircraft to transport the Blob to the Arctic, where it is parachuted to the ice.The origin of The Blob is never identified, and the film ends with a question mark.>>

[ks8661]

Would it be interesting to see a rotating Pluto?

[orin stepanek]

I really liked today's APOD; I hope I can fit it as a background! It may not have enough space to fill my screen!

I had to crop the top & bottom off of it; but I made it work.

[Ann]

Pluto's geology is so interesting. I really, really wonder how Sputnik Planum got so smooth and at the same time so amazingly, regularly segmented. And then all the rest of Pluto is more or less cratered and craggly. Fascinating!

Should we rename all the moderately large bodies in the solar system planets? I wonder where we draw the line. And I can imagine humanity really exploring the 51 Pegasi system, and reporting home that one million, nine thousand, two hundred and thirty-four planets have been discovered orbiting 51 Pegasi, and now we just need to name them...

Ann

[hoohaw]

Would it be interesting to see a rotating Pluto?

what I found on Wikipedia: "Charon and Pluto orbit each other every 6.387 days. The two objects are gravitationally locked to one another, so each keeps the same face towards the other. This is a case of mutual tidal locking, as compared to that of the Earth and the Moon, where the Moon always shows the same face to Earth, but not vice versa. The average distance between Charon and Pluto is 19,570 kilometres (12,160 mi)."

[hoohaw]

Pluto is not the ninth planet. That’s Pallas:
But as with Pluto, they were RE-classified, and are considered asteroids...especially when considering how far out of the Ecliptic Plane that it is...there are no missions that are planned to go there for this reason, as the energy required it too great.
:---[===] *

Should we call the smaller ones "half-asteroids" ?

[BMAONE23]

Perhaps Minorroids or Asterettes or Asteressimals

[Nitpicker]

If I ruled the universe, anything that isn't a star, and is otherwise massive enough to be roundish (i.e. in hydrostatic equilibrium) would be called a planet. I'd love it if the Earth and the Moon were considered twin planets. And all the other moons orbiting other planets would still be called moons, too, whether or not they are large enough to also be called planets.

(Then comes the difficulty of deciding when a planet becomes a star, or when a planet is not round enough. But still less problematic than the current definitions.)