APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

[APOD Robot]

Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto

Explanation: Why are there unusual pits on Pluto? The indentations were discovered during the New Horizons spacecraft's flyby of the dwarf planet in July. The largest pits span a kilometer across and dip tens of meters into a lake of frozen nitrogen, a lake that sprawls across Sputnik Planum, part of the famous light-colored heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio. Although most pits in the Solar System are created by impact craters, these depressions look different -- many are similarly sized, densely packed, and aligned. Rather, it is thought that something has caused these specific areas of ice to sublimate and evaporate away. In fact, the lack of overlying impact craters indicates these pits formed relatively recently. Even though the robotic New Horizons is now off to a new destination, it continues to beam back to Earth new images and data from its dramatic encounter with Pluto.

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[Beyond]

Pits?? I only see bumps.

[nebosite]

Camp Greenlake!!!

[Guest]

What I see are mostly impact craters. True they are closely spaced. Looks like Pluto was hit long ago by a fragmented comet.

[Ann]

Camp Greenlake!!!

I thought so too!

Ann

[BMAONE23]

First thing I saw was the distinct resemblance to Yeast in a Petri dish

[Peter Smith]

First thing I saw was the distinct resemblance to Yeast in a Petri dish

Or maybe the pits on a CD

[StarHopper]

Zoicks! They have a wildebeetle migration!! You can even see the crococrystals in their midsts!

[isoparix]

This is one of those irritating pics where one simply cannot force one's eyes to see craters, no matter how one orientates one's head or the image. Like previous entry, all I see are pellets strewn over the surface! Oddly enough, if I go to one of the links http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMo ... modest.jpg, I do see craters....

[NCTom]

Are the parallel vertical lines most visible at the top and bottom of the photo actually on the surface or are they a photo/transmission effect?

[Guest]

Can someone explain what the writing means? NASA/JHU's APL/SwRI

[Ozoz1]

Looks like the bubbles an indentations that form when you cook a pancake on a hot griddle...,)

[heehaw]

Looks to me like an aerial view of the Serengeti. Those are gnus.

[Keyman]

Can someone explain what the writing means? NASA/JHU's APL/SwRI

Those are photo credits: NASA, Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute. Beneath the picture, you'l see links to each.

I also have trouble seeing them as dips, not bumps. But if you look and think,'if these *are* dips, and the sun is coming from upper-leftish', they magically depress.

[Beyond]

This is one of those irritating pics where one simply cannot force one's eyes to see craters, no matter how one orientates one's head or the image. Like previous entry, all I see are pellets strewn over the surface! Oddly enough, if I go to one of the links http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMo ... modest.jpg, I do see craters....

Ahhh, pits.

[starsurfer]

Pluto continues to astound and surprise everyone holding the world captivated while it whirls its long path around the Sun! Looking at this picture does funny things to my eyes?!

[Whiskybreath]

Are the parallel vertical lines most visible at the top and bottom of the photo actually on the surface or are they a photo/transmission effect?

Exactly the question I was going to ask. There does seem to be correspondence in some areas.

[tfadams]

To quote from the Beatles "A Day in the Life"
"I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall."

[neufer]

[b][size=150][color=#0000FF]Plan(et) 9 From Outer Space[/color][/size][/b]

---

Pluto continues to astound and surprise everyone holding the world captivated while it whirls its long path around the Sun!

Looking at this picture does funny things to my eyes?!

...Paralyze the living

Just as the Plutonians had planned.

[plutosplanets]

looks like a bunch of cattle grazing on the range

[Boomer12k]

Has anyone thought it might be Tidal Forces and stretching? Or a type of Warming Effect? Like Phobos? After all it is has Charon and 4 other moons.

But as it is on a Nitrogen Lake....I expect Out-gassing...maybe when Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune it is a tad warmer? Pluto's atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen...had to come from somewhere...

:---[===] *

[neufer]

Has anyone thought it might be Tidal Forces and stretching? Or a type of Warming Effect? Like Phobos? After all it is has Charon and 4 other moons.

Charon's orbital eccentricity is very low (<0.01) such that tidal forces are very constant
(and the other moons are too small to be considered).

But as it is on a Nitrogen Lake....I expect Out-gassing...maybe when Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune it is a tad warmer? Pluto's atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen...had to come from somewhere...

Pluto's orbital eccentricity is quite large (~ 0.25) and it just passed through perihelion so this is more likely.

[quigley]

To me it looks as if the subsurface is cracked and the pits are where the surface "ice", perhaps in a snow-like state, has sifted down into the cracks. Especially the curved, parallel rows of these pits suggest to me a series of crevasse-type structures beneath? Is this possible?

[Martin]

Reminds me of the pits/holes near Pisco Valley, Peru on a plain called Cajamarquilla.

Link: http://www.world-mysteries.com/pisco2ed.jpg

[SouthEastAsia]

My question would be: where is the Sun in relation to this photo? Are there shadows??

Confusing pic nonetheless to me, as there definitely seems to be multiple intricate patterns of various orientations and not some random or singular effect causing these formations.