An image of Pluto produced by NASA’s New Horizons researchers called Psychedelic Pluto shows that the dwarf planet is virtually void of craters. This large area is known as Sputnik planum and has a less than 10 one million year old surface. Scientists are amazed that any kind of geologic activity which could have smoothed Pluto’s surface occurred so recent on such an object. The 10million years are a flash in the eye when compared with our Solar System’s life span of approximately 4.5 billion years. Psychedelic Pluto is a false image using principal component analysis. It highlights subtle differences in the colors of distinct areas on the dwarf planet. Psychedelic Pluto, which shows the surfaces of dwarf planets in different colors. (Image: www.nasa.gov) Image taken during spacecraft’s flyby The image data were collected by New Horizon’s Ralph/MVIC color camera on 14th July at 11: 11 AM UTC, when it was 22,000 miles (35,000) from Pluto’s surface. Will Grundy presented the image on the 9th of November to the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting of American Astronomical Society in National Harbor (Maryland). It is possible that the region has been smoothed by recent geologic processes. NASA scientists found it astonishing, as an internal heat source must be present for this process to take place, something that is often lost by small celestial bodies such as Pluto billions of year after they were created. At the AAS meeting, Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado stated that “it’s an enormous finding that small planets could be active on large scales, billions of year after their creation.” New Horizon scientists also presented a variety of new findings. They also provided new information about Pluto’s atmosphere and discovered what could be ice volcanoes. Pluto’s likely ice volcanoes are among the 50 exciting discoveries made about this dwarf planet. These moons not only orbit and spin quickly but also act as ice volcanoes. New Horizons, a NASA space probe that was launched in the New Frontiers program of NASA on 19th Jan. 2006. 14th Juli, 2015, flew very close to Pluto’s surface (7 ,800 mile – 12,500km). Piccard Mons and Wright Mons are two mountain ranges on Pluto’s surface. These mountains were formerly known as ice volcanoes. Jim Green, NASA Headquarters’ director of planetary sciences, stated that the New Horizons mission had changed everything we believed we knew about Pluto. This is why we investigate – to satisfy our curiosity and answer deeper questions regarding how we got there and beyond. Geologists who worked with New Horizons created 3-D maps of Pluto that suggested that its most prominent mountains could be cryovolcanoes, ice volcanoes active in recent geological history. New Horizons’ team has learned much about Pluto’s moon system and its amazing properties. Pluto, unlike most moons of the Solar System (including our Moon), has its one-sided facing the planet. They move quickly. Two (or perhaps four?) of Pluto’s smaller moons have merged with other moons. Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI. Hydra is Pluto’s farthest moon and rotates 89 for every full orbit. Because Charon, the largest moon of the solar system exerts such a strong torque on smaller moons that it prevents them from falling into synchronous orbits, the team thinks their spin rates may not be constant. Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute Mountain View, California said that “Pluto’s moons behave as spinning tops” and they have now examined the images. The scientists believe some of the smaller moons could have combined with other moons. Showalter stated that they believe that Pluto may have had more moons before the impact of Charon. Video – Pluto’s Psychedelic Makeover
NASA Scientists astonished by huge Pluto area without craters
