This thread is for discussion of NH Pluto surface observations received after 10 Oct 2015.

Good morning,
What's the most realistic color image of Pluto as appears to the human eye?..Many ThanKS
edit: I have a Questions..
the diagram score (P.H.Index) of Pluto is 22% complete..
as it would be the diagram score of Pluto today after New Horizon images?

This post that I wrote in the previous thread might give you an answer:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=227266

There is a true color image with data from RALPH and the higher resolution mosaics colorized using lower resolution true-color data by a kind amateur:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=227266

It is beautful, the 8K mosaic is now my desktop background. Official RALPH + MVIC hi-res mosaic will come later.

Pluto LORRI close-ups:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/index.php

Here's the full list of LORRI images published in SOC today.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:29 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_6.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:43 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:20:38 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:20:52 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:09 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:18 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:23 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:38 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'C_MVIC_LORRI_CA_L1', described as '3s LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:21:49 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'C_LORRI_L1', described as 'Tight-deadband 2-sigma LORRI mosaic of Charon', published at 2015-10-16T17:11:28 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:23:08 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:23:15 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:23:21 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:23:26 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:23:33 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:03 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:09 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:16 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:29 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:37 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:45 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:27:17 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:08 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:15 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:24 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:30 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:35 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:40 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:45 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:51 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:28:56 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:29:01 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:30:29 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:30:35 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:30:45 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:30:50 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:30:56 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:31:17 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:31:29 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:24:51 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T17:25:04 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T18:08:39 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T18:08:55 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T18:08:48 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T18:09:01 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-16T18:09:07 UTC

Edit: Added more to the list 5 minutes later. Guess they weren't done yet.
Edit 2: Added 5 more that were published a half hour later.

I would not have expected this pattern within the dark streaks:

Click to view attachment

We shouldn't expect anything with Pluto.

LORRI site is slow, it must be getting mobbed.

ETA: Sublimation pits and crevasses?
Click to view attachment

Here's a hand-stitching of P_MPAN_1

Click the preview image below for the full-size version (8817x1156, File size is 5.5 MiB):

Here's the version I made. This also includes the images from P_MPAN that were downlinked earlier this month.

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/images/P_MPAN.jpg

Before today's LORRI release I was starting to think that Pluto couldn't get much more weird-looking than it already was - it already looked strange enough. I love to admit that I was wrong.

I assume the blank/noisy LORRI image releases from 11:22:02 to 11:22:36 are part of the high-res strip. Are they a portion taken beyond Pluto's limb, or is something else going on?

Wow. Amazing pattern. My first take was mounds, but checking the lighting elsewhere in the picture, you're right, those are pits. But that pattern.. just wow.

How big are those pits?

More confirmation that the level of pitting in the "convection cells" appears to be higher near the edges than in the middle, backing up the convection concept (as the edges would be the oldest).

Just wow.

I can understand regularly spaced pits and rows of pits, but how in the world can there be pits occurring in pairs?

Click to view attachment

I was wondering that too. I thought maybe they were the images they were going to take on the dark side 'by Charon-light'. However it looks like there are stars. Maybe images taken to search for more moons?

These images may have been taken to ensure that Pluto's limb is covered in case of inaccurate pointing and/or slightly different flyby geometry from what was planned.

Yes, they shows dark space (with some luck few RAWs could show atmosphere).
There are still at least 7 images missing in the sequence (P_MPAN_1) which contains Pluto's surface (11:22:38 - 11:22:50).

The latest mosaic with LORRI images (one was so black that it seems there was nothing!)

What was the resolution on the latest high res strip?

I suspect those are actually dunes, with dark material on the sunlit side, and bright frost on the shady side.

Shading does weird things to human vision-

Take a look at the dune fields around Saudi Arabia / Kuait 22.4119038,50.4721622
What do you think you see?

Mesas and buttes in a field of saw-toothed ridges, or areas of open rock in a field of dunes?

Pits are much more plausible explanation.
On majority of mountains and craters dark material is almost always on the shady side. It's unlikely that this would be different for plains.
It's also very difficult to explains existence of dunes on the body with such low atmospheric pressure.
We will see pretty soon what's correct as we can expect high resolution stereo data for those regions.



~120 meters per pixel.

I suspect the size, form, orientation, and clustering of the pits have to do with the structure, fabric, and/or composition (two or more types of more-or-less immiscible ices?) of the Sputnik material itself.

Are these the highest resolution images of Pluto we're going to get then?

Nope, we should get two strips which are about 70-80m per pixel, one from just before closest approach and one from just after.

Do we know (or can we estimate) the area of coverage of the 70-80/pixel strips?

Here was the predict for the pre-C/A strip
Click to view attachment

Thanks. I've seen that before but was unable to relocate it.

I was hoping they captured some of the terrain to the east of the recently released strip. The interaction of smooth and rough terrain here is beyond intriguing.

Rough estimate of track shown rendered above, alongside recently released strip:

Click to view attachment

I am puzzled why they did not stop when they reached the terminator.
Uncertainty in the pointing probably didn't exceed the four frames of empty space captured on either side of the (dwarf) planet.

It did. Not uncertainty in the pointing, exactly - but uncertainty in the location of Pluto along the track of the spacecraft.

Yeah, uncertainty was quite large. Better be safe than sorry.

Interesting comparison by Phil Metzger between clouds on Earth and ices on Sputnik. Especially the right image there (and other parts of the most recent mosaic) suggest how topography under Sputnik might affect what the surface looks like.

And I thought the 'frozen clouds' in the movie 'Interstellar' were far-fetched. Pluto seems to have an answer for everything.

Not really. Aeolian processes on the Pluto system are easier to explain than dust ripples on the surface of Comet 67P/C-G, which has little sensible atmosphere and very low gravity. These are strange worlds and strange times with so many phenomena in search of explanation.

--Bill

Updated file tracking received and expected LORRI and RALPH images...

Well, here's sort-of-the-opposite, in some parts of antartica the icy surface just disappears into the wind...

However, the new study shows that in certain parts, called scour zones, some 90 percent—an estimated 80 billion tons per year—is instead being vaporized...

So Pluto topography might cause chinook winds, adiabatic downslope winds, known as snow-eaters....

Looks like stereo imaging is starting to be assembled. Story

Below is a flicker animation for those without glasses.
Click to view attachment

I might do a tween on this to see if it reveals anything but I don't expect that it would. Differences are pretty small.

Nonetheless, and if feels cliche and beaten to death to say, but if Pluto couldn't get more bizarre, those craters are fantastically deep bowl shapes.

It's impossible to know how deep the craters are without knowing the difference in viewpoints between the two frames. This is a well-known feature of anaglyphs - the apparent depth of features depends on how far apart the two frames were taken. (And also on factors such as how close you are to the computer display when you view it.)

It looks like the frames have been geometrically distorted so that they match over most of the surface, ie so that most of the surface appears flat in the stereo views. You should look at the original frames to get a sense of how far apart they were taken (or better, calculate it based on the metadata). That would allow you to actually measure the depths of the craters.

I was going by visual appearance along with the reported 'up to 1.3 miles (2.1 km) deep', according to the article I linked.

It's always difficult to say when viewing an anaglyph how much it exaggerates the vertical dimension, but I think it is true to say these craters reach their full depth remarkably close to their rims. They are more like cylindrical pits than bowls. I don't doubt they started off as normal impact craters but something - perhaps preferential mass wasting of the deeper layers - has modified their shape.

Pluto is a world that is eroding away the whole time. Old surface will aquire a protective husk but anything newly exposed will be particularly vulnerable to mass wasting.

It was a simple observation that was based not on the anaglyph, but the flicker animation which works much better for viewing visible differences, for me at least.

Heres a very small crop of the tween I'm working on.



It may just be due to strange geometric distortions introduced as suggested, but if not, there would seem to be a pretty large amount of relief here. The crater at the lower right, also moves and behaves as if it was fairly bowl-like in shape.

The above GIF for 3D glasses:
Click to view attachment

Here's a full list of LORRI images published in SOC today. The dump was about 10 minutes ago.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_18_02_L1', described as '4 Charon LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:17:00 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_18_02_L1', described as '4 Charon LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:16:56 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_18_02_L1', described as '4 Charon LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:16:50 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_17_01_L1', described as '4 Pluto LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:16:17 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_17_01_L1', described as '4 Pluto LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:16:13 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_17_01_L1', described as '4 Pluto LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:16:08 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_17_01_L1', described as '4 Pluto LORRI', published at 2015-10-23T18:16:03 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'U_TBD_2_L1', published at 2015-10-23T18:18:52 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'U_TBD_2_L1', published at 2015-10-23T18:18:34 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'U_TBD_2_L1', published at 2015-10-23T18:18:41 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'U_TBD_2_L1', published at 2015-10-23T18:18:47 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:15:11 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:15:16 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:15:06 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:15:02 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:56 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:50 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_4.jpg identified as 'P_MPAN_1', described as 'LORRI Ride-Along', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:46 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x636_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_LEISA_HIRES_L1', described as 'LORRI Portion', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:41 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x636_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_LEISA_HIRES_L1', described as 'LORRI Portion', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:37 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x636_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_LEISA_HIRES_L1', described as 'LORRI Portion', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:29 UTC
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x636_sci_3.jpg identified as 'N_LEISA_LORRI_BEST', described as 'LORRI Portion', published at 2015-10-23T18:14:25 UTC

Here's a hand stitch of (only) the latest additions to P_MPAN.

(Click for full size, 4829x1082, 2.7 MiB)

I had great expectations associated with observations set identified as P_LEISA_HIRES (23 images made from range about 56000 km). These three images confirmed that expectations were justified. It would be expected that the exposure time for this observation set will be less than 150 milliseconds, but significantly longer than 10 milliseconds. Images captured with the exposure time 50 msec are excellent. I will be impatiently wait for the remaining twenty images. Probably we will have to wait at least three weeks.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x636_sci_3.jpg identified as 'P_LEISA_HIRES_L1', described as 'LORRI Portion',
This whole mission exceeds all my expectations and all previous imaginations.

FYI, your links don't work. It seems the "..." is in the actual links, so they don't go through. - Moderator.

Some of the craters are brighter at ~5 o'clock in the this image:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x636_sci_3.jpg
some specular reflection?

Here's a hand stitch of the 3 P_LEISA_HIRES_L1 images published so far. Really looking forward to getting the rest of these down.

(Click for full size, 1179x2797, 1.9 MiB)

just some fun
a 1920x1080 desktop background

And a slightly different perspective on Charon as things rotate into view (or before they rotated out of...). We get a glimpse into that eastern terminator region and the mystery "chasmas".

--Bill

Seems like each release is newly amazing.

Other than the craters, I don't even know if we have proper top-level nomenclature for many of these features, to say nothing of origin theories.

A totally alien place.

Almost I missed it. Today's images taken from a distance of 1.7 million km fill the time gap between 2015-07-12 8:46 (distance 2.5 Mi km) and 2015-07-13 16:17 (distance 1.0 Mi km). We can see a lot of new details on reverse side of Pluto, including several craters (previously unseen due to the distance, later hidden behind the edge of the planet). Not seen before !
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounte...0x630_sci_1.jpg identified as 'PC_MULTI_MAP_B_17_01_L1',