Pluto has evenly spaced huge dark spots!

[The One]

Ok this has got me wondering what could cause these evenly spaced dark spots?!? And what are they? This is going to be very, very interesting I think!

This is what this link (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150701-2) says.

New color images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft show two very different faces of the mysterious dwarf planet, one with a series of intriguing spots along the equator that are evenly spaced. Each of the spots is about 300 miles in diameter, with a surface area that's roughly the size of the state of Missouri.

Scientists have yet to see anything quite like the dark spots; their presence has piqued the interest of the New Horizons science team, due to the remarkable consistency in their spacing and size. While the origin of the spots is a mystery for now, the answer may be revealed as the spacecraft continues its approach to the mysterious dwarf planet. "It's a real puzzle—we don't know what the spots are, and we can't wait to find out," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder. "Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colors and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and grayer moon Charon."

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/pics/7-1-15_Pluto_Charon_color_hemispheres_unannotated_JHUA PL_NASA_SWRI.jpg

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/pics/7-1-15_Pluto_Charon_color_hemispheres_annotated_JHUAPL _NASA_SWRI.jpg

Pluto shows two remarkably different sides in these color images of the planet and its largest moon Charon taken by New Horizons on June 25 and June 27. The images were made from black-and-white images combined with lower-resolution color data. The left image shows the side of Pluto that will be seen at highest resolution when New Horizons makes its close approach on July 14. The hemisphere is dominated by a very dark region that extends along the equator. The right image is of the side that faces Charon; the most dramatic feature on this side of Pluto is a row of dark spots arranged along the equator. (The equator appears near the bottom of the images, as only about half of the planet is shown.)

Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

They will probably say its a camera artifact lol

[jimmer]

thanks, malc.
keep us updated, pls.

[Joanna]

Just saw this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11728951/Giant-heart-spotted-on-Pluto-in-closest-ever-pictures-of-dwarf-planet.html

Pluto/Hades has a heart. Who would have thought....?

[RealityCreation]

More info & viewable updates of images:


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-09/pluto-comes-into-focus/6566818

[Joanna]

More info & viewable updates of images:


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-09/pluto-comes-into-focus/6566818

Awesome, thank you! A 'piano-sized space probe' whipping past Pluto on July 14 is a lovely image.... :)

Not to mention the photos that will come back....

[lift the veil]

NASA Releases Last Image Of Pluto's Far Side Ahead Of Upcoming Flyby

The Huffington Post | By Nick Visser

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/12/nasa-pluto-photo_n_7780558.html

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/3179484/thumbs/o-NASA-PLUTO-570.jpg?7

Take a good look, folks.

On Saturday, NASA released a stunning photo of Pluto captured by the New Horizons spacecraft. The image is the clearest view many of us will ever get of the four dark spots that have captivated stargazers and scientists since they were first seen in late June.

The spots, which are being called Pluto's "brass knuckles," lie on the far side of the icy dwarf planet. The region will be rotated away from the New Horizons' cameras when the spacecraft has its close-range flyby on Tuesday. The image above gives "the last, best look that anyone will have of Pluto’s far side for decades to come," said Alan Stern, the principal investigator for the mission.

The dark areas, all of which are about 300 miles in diameter, have intrigued scientists eager to know what they are and why they're so evenly spaced. “It’s a real puzzle -- we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,” Stern said in a statement earlier this month.

“We can’t tell whether they’re plateaus or plains, or whether they’re brightness variations on a completely smooth surface,” said Jeff Moore, a scientist with NASA’s Ames Research Center, in the announcement.

New Horizons will fly within 7,800 miles of Pluto on July 14 at 7:49 a.m. EDT. During that time, the spacecraft will be in full view of the heart-shaped formation that made waves across the web last week.

You can follow along with the mission using the hashtag #PlutoFlyby and on Facebook.

[lift the veil]

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=49503&linkId=15514645

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/images/NH_Approach_720.png

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto.

After a decade-long journey through our solar system, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto Tuesday, about 7,750 miles above the surface -- roughly the same distance from New York to Mumbai, India - making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth.

"I'm delighted at this latest accomplishment by NASA, another first that demonstrates once again how the United States leads the world in space," said John Holdren, assistant to the President for Science and Technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "New Horizons is the latest in a long line of scientific accomplishments at NASA, including multiple missions orbiting and exploring the surface of Mars in advance of human visits still to come; the remarkable Kepler mission to identify Earth-like planets around stars other than our own; and the DSCOVR satellite that soon will be beaming back images of the whole Earth in near real-time from a vantage point a million miles away. As New Horizons completes its flyby of Pluto and continues deeper into the Kuiper Belt, NASA's multifaceted journey of discovery continues."

"The exploration of Pluto and its moons by New Horizons represents the capstone event to 50 years of planetary exploration by NASA and the United States," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Once again we have achieved a historic first. The United States is the first nation to reach Pluto, and with this mission has completed the initial survey of our solar system, a remarkable accomplishment that no other nation can match."

Per the plan, the spacecraft currently is in data-gathering mode and not in contact with flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physical Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. Scientists are waiting to find out whether New Horizons "phones home," transmitting to Earth a series of status updates that indicate the spacecraft survived the flyby and is in good health. The "call" is expected shortly after 9 p.m. tonight.

The Pluto story began only a generation ago when young Clyde Tombaugh was tasked to look for Planet X, theorized to exist beyond the orbit of Neptune. He discovered a faint point of light that we now see as a complex and fascinating world.

"Pluto was discovered just 85 years ago by a farmer's son from Kansas, inspired by a visionary from Boston, using a telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Today, science takes a great leap observing the Pluto system up close and flying into a new frontier that will help us better understand the origins of the solar system."

New Horizons' flyby of the dwarf planet and its five known moons is providing an up-close introduction to the solar system's Kuiper Belt, an outer region populated by icy objects ranging in size from boulders to dwarf planets. Kuiper Belt objects, such as Pluto, preserve evidence about the early formation of the solar system.

New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, says the mission now is writing the textbook on Pluto.

"The New Horizons team is proud to have accomplished the first exploration of the Pluto system," Stern said. "This mission has inspired people across the world with the excitement of exploration and what humankind can achieve."

New Horizons' almost 10-year, three-billion-mile journey to closest approach at Pluto took about one minute less than predicted when the craft was launched in January 2006. The spacecraft threaded the needle through a 36-by-57 mile (60 by 90 kilometers) window in space -- the equivalent of a commercial airliner arriving no more off target than the width of a tennis ball.

Because New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever launched - hurtling through the Pluto system at more than 30,000 mph, a collision with a particle as small as a grain of rice could incapacitate the spacecraft. Once it reestablishes contact Tuesday night, it will take 16 months for New Horizons to send its cache of data - 10 years' worth -- back to Earth.

New Horizons is the latest in a long line of scientific accomplishments at NASA, including multiple rovers exploring the surface of Mars, the Cassini spacecraft that has revolutionized our understanding of Saturn and the Hubble Space Telescope, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. All of this scientific research and discovery is helping to inform the agency's plan to send American astronauts to Mars in the 2030's.

"After nearly 15 years of planning, building, and flying the New Horizons spacecraft across the solar system, we've reached our goal," said project manager Glen Fountain at APL "The bounty of what we've collected is about to unfold."

APL designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. SwRI leads the mission, science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Follow the New Horizons mission on Twitter and use the hashtag #PlutoFlyby to join the conversation. Live updates also will be available on the mission Facebook page.

For more information on the New Horizons mission, including fact sheets, schedules, video and images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

and

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/plutotoolkit.cfm

[Frances]

Great photograph of Pluto. The heart shape now looks like a massive crater, although I realise that may change as more information comes through.
Frances.

[Daozen]

Fascinating, thanks. They are also finding anomalous structures on Ceres. John Lear was right!

[Bob]

you've seen the polygons?

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/mh-07-10-15_puto_image_annotated.jpg