Ever notice how the illustrations of Pluto you see in some science article look familiar?
For example there is this image from the New Scientist article I pointed out in another thread.
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Some of you are probably thinking, 'hey Pluto looks a lot like Ganymede'
Sure enough, the illustration of Pluto, which includes the credit NASA/JPL is a slightly modified version of this image taken by Voyager 1
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00352

It just been inverted and had its color balance shifted.

Seeing the NASA credit I did an image search hoping to find the article it was originally in. No such luck but I did find some more "images of Pluto" such as these, the second is supposed to be Pluto and Charon, I'm sure everyone recognizes Europa in the second image.
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From http://www.somewhereville.com/gnw/tas/other.html and http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01887/planets/pluto.html



Now you too can create your own image of Pluto. Here's how:

Step 1) Use Celestia to find an unfamiliar view of Ganymede and save the image
or select and image of Ganymede from Planetary Photojournal, not this one though
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everyone will recognize that.

Step 2) Use any available image processing software to shift the color balance to give the image a blue-gray cast.

Step 3) Flip the image left to right and invert it or rotate the image to make it appear less familiar.

Presto, you have made an image of Pluto suitable for science articles on the internet and various astronomy websites
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[...]

And overlay it onto an image of bland old Rhea to produce a simulacrum of Pluto based on the improbable assumption of an ancient surface there. I was not ecstatic with the results.[/quote]

I think Ganymede gets picked because its splotchy albedo features are a lower contrast version of what we see at Pluto at very low resolution.

[...]

I'm happy you tried it. I like the result and expect for another take on it...

I'm wondering if Pluto'll turn out to be as heavily cratered as Rhea or more similar to Europa/Enceladus. Whether we like it or not, probably the best base image for Pluto would be Triton. You can't beat that orange skin look!

I've made my own...

I've played around with this Hubble image (the left one) and used A LOT of artistic liberty...

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Although not an imagesmith myself (you guys rule!), that's sort of been my baseline assumption all along, with the caveat that Triton's had much more tidal disruption, both previous & ongoing. Pluto IMHO will have an older surface, but altered by periodic sublimation/refreezing of its atmosphere; betting on some pretty unusual aeolian effects near local depressions, should NH be fortunate enough to overfly any at a close enough range for hi-res imagery.

Probably true, but you never know what the resonance between Pluto and Charon might do. One thing we do know is that the albedo variations on Pluto are much more intense. Pluto is one of the highest contrast worlds in the solar system, while Triton is very low contrast.

True, Ted.

Well, that's exactly why we generate UMSF missions on the first place..anybody else remember sodium "sputtering" from Io as an explanation for its plasma torus?....

Point being that we don't know squat till we go look. I'm certain that Pluto will be very surprising in many ways...safest bet in town, based on Cassini alone...

And in most cases we still don't know squat till we go touch it. With unmanned fingers, of course.

[...]

Well, in *that* case, how about this attempt?
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Nice and more inspiring this one!
I'm also wondering what can be the tidal effects of that binary system ( Pluto, Charon ), the only system where the "center of mass" is outside the "mother planet".
Regarding the dark equatorial band, why not a mountain ridge similar to what we see on Iapetus! There may be exchanges of matter between Pluto and Charon resulting in a disk of dust around Pluto.
Let's recall that Charon is about 20 000 km from Pluto which is extremely close. So, why not a Io-like world!

[...]

The data about Pluto's surface are not consistent with the idea of an Io-like world. I was exaggerating!
Apparently, the atmosphere generates anti-greenhouse effects.
Charon is warmer.So, maybe, Charon benefits more from tidal heating.

.

oooeee like that one!

Well,
No need to wait the arrival of New Horizons. We have it, already!

Maybe, the surface appears a little more icy than that but I won't bet on it!