What Did NASA Discover in Latest Photos from Pluto?

Introduction

The introduction provides a brief description of Pluto and its characteristics.

Pluto's Characteristics

• Pluto is a small, lifeless world located on the periphery of the solar system.

• It is about 40 astronomical units away from the Sun and has an elongated orbit around the center of the solar system.

• Its radius is 1188 kilometers, making it smaller than all planets in the solar system and some satellites like the Moon.

• It has a mass of only 1.3 times 10 to the power of 22 kilograms or 18 lunar masses.

• Pluto has a long orbital cycle, completing it every 248 Earth years.

New Horizons Mission

This section discusses the New Horizons unmanned orbital station that was sent to explore Pluto.

The New Horizons Mission

• In 2006, NASA sent the New Horizons unmanned orbital station to explore Pluto.

• It took nine and a half years for New Horizons to reach its destination.

• During its flyby, it made about 400 observations and collected more than six gigabytes of information.

• Unfortunately, due to its trajectory, it did not photograph the entire surface of Pluto.

Surface Features

This section describes some notable surface features on Pluto.

Tombaugh Regio (The Heart)

• Tombaugh Regio is located in the equatorial zone of Pluto and is shaped like a heart.

• It is not homogeneous, and there is a smooth and light plane in its western part known as Sputnik Planitia.

Other Surface Features

• Pluto's surface temperature is very low, not exceeding 60 Kelvin or 213 degrees Celsius below zero.

• There are other notable surface features on Pluto, but they were not discussed in the transcript.

Formation of Pluto's Surface

This section discusses the formation of Pluto's surface and its geological features.

Geological Hypothesis

• Sputnik Planitia formed about 100 million years ago due to a collision with a large celestial body.

• A huge impact crater appeared, which was filled with contents of the hypothetical inner ocean of the dwarf planet that rapidly froze there.

Relief Features

• Smooth surface areas ranging from 20 to 30 kilometers in size are present on Pluto's surface.

• Hills and depressions are concentrated on the borders between them, resembling convection cells.

• Tombow Reggio is surrounded by comparatively high mountain ridges. Hillary Montes lying to the west from Sputnik Planitia reach three and a half kilometers in height. Townsing Montes are located in the southern part of the heart, some towering as high as over six kilometers above the dwarf planet's average surface level, making this Ridge the tallest one found on Pluto.

• The rocks are likely made up mostly of Water Ice and in temperatures as low as here on Pluto water ice is solid as rock.

Cryovolcanism

• A deep basin surrounded by massive motor-layered ridges of ice and rock may be an ancient cryovolcano vent.

• The rock around it is its numerous frozen eruptions whose chemical composition is of great interest to science because once it is known, peculiarities of Pluto's inner makeup may be studied.

Maculars

• Moving further east along the equator reveals a chain of dark spots hundreds of kilometers in diameter called maculars.

• They form a giant structure called brass knuckles encompassing the celestial body along with equator.

• Cthulhu macula stretches to the west from Tombau Reggio, measuring almost 3,000 kilometers. Its surface reflects not more than 30 percent of the light shed on it.

• Their dark color is due to a high content of thurlins combined with a relatively large concentration of impact craters.

Lowell Reggio

• Lowell Reggio is the vast valley surrounding Pluto's North Pole and currently the most illuminated part of its surface.

• Pluto's axis of rotation has a very large tilt with respect to the plane of its orbit so in its movement, it found itself facing the sun with its North Pole.

• It is assumed that this reason that the density of Pluto's atmosphere has tripled over the past 30 years despite growing distance from the Sun.

Peculiarities of Pluto's Orbit

This section discusses peculiarities in Pluto's orbit and its satellites.

Orbital Motion

• In its orbital motion, Pluto has a noticeable tilt to the ecliptic plane.

• The planetoid itself constantly performs cyclic oscillations near a certain point due to Sharon's presence.

• Sharon is gravitationally affecting the dwarf planet and has a mass more than 11% that of Pluto itself.

Tidal Locking

• As a consequence, both celestial bodies orbit a common mass center between them and are tidally locked to each other so they face each other with the same sides at all times.

Other Satellites

• There are several other satellites besides Sharon but all have less mass.

Overview of Sharon's Terrain Features

This section provides an overview of the terrain features found on the surface of Sharon, a celestial body in the Kuiper Belt.

Vulcan Plenum

• A vast region to the south of the Equator.

• Its area is not known precisely but is estimated to be at least 400,000 square kilometers.

• Contains Kubrik Mons, which is around 40 kilometers in diameter and may reach a height of 4,000 meters.

• Surrounded by a wide circular moat up to two kilometers deep.

Oz Terra

• Lies north of Vulcan Plenum and is separated from it by a system of giant ledges and crevices with a total height of about one kilometer.

• Contains Serenity Kasma, which is 200 kilometers long with a width varying from 40 to 50 kilometers. It can be as deep as seven kilometers.

Mordor Macula

• Located near the very pole and has a diameter that reaches 475 kilometers.

• Origin still debatable; according to one hypothesis nitrogen and methane floating from Pluto's atmosphere were trapped by Sharon's gravity and settled at its poles after exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

The Mystery Surrounding Sharon

This section discusses how research on Sharon is only just starting, making it largely unknown despite being part of one of the most interesting structures in our solar system.

Lack of Research

• Despite being part of one of the most interesting structures in our solar system, research on Sharon is only just starting.

• The New Horizons probe left Sharon's environs long ago, and the celestial bodies themselves are rapidly moving away from us.

• By about 2030, all of the probe's systems will eventually fail, leaving it alone in the chilling recesses of space.

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