Why the Latest Photos Of Pluto That New Horizon Captured Shocked NASA

 

The New Horizons mission stands as an extraordinary space exploration endeavor, hailed as one of the most formidable challenges in human history. Its journey culminated in a remarkable feat: capturing unprecedented views of Pluto, a celestial body nestled at the outer reaches of our solar system, from an exceptionally close vantage point. Yet, the notion of being the sole witnesses to this spectacle is challenged, as the revelations from New Horizons prompt scientists to ponder: Is Pluto merely an inert, icy rock, or does it harbor mysteries yet unveiled?

Eight years post its encounter, the trove of data amassed during the flyby continues to captivate the mission team, unraveling fresh insights and reshaping our perceptions of the solar system. Could there truly lie concealed beneath Pluto’s surface an enigmatic ocean of liquid water? What phenomena sculpted the icy dunes that adorn its terrain? Delve into these enthralling inquiries, along with the intricate dynamics of material exchange between this dwarf planet and its largest cosmic neighbor. Join us on an expedition to Pluto, offering a glimpse into its essence like never before.

 

The New Horizons probe was launched on January 19,   2006. The primary goal of the mission was to  study Pluto, once dubbed the most distant planet   of the solar system. Back then, it wasn’t  possible to get a close up look at Pluto,   and scientists were really interested to see  what the surface of the dwarf planet looked like. Because Pluto is so far away from Earth,   the mission team had to come up with clever  tricks to speed up the probe’s journey,   because otherwise it would take the  probe a really lo ng time to get there. After launch from Earth, in just under 9 hours,  the New Horizons probe passed the Moon’s orbit. While approaching the solar system’s largest  planet, Jupiter, the spacecraft took pictures of   the gas giant, and its moons. On Io (pronounced  eye-o), the probe caught the Tvashtar volcano   in action, capturing a volcanic eruption  that reached 200 miles [320 km] into space. In 2007, the probe swung within 1.4 million  miles of Jupiter [2. 3 million km], and   got a big grav ity assist from the gas  giant. This little maneuver massively   reduced its time of arrival at  Pluto from 14 to just 9 years. Although an 8-year long voyage was still  ahead. To make sure the probe’s electronics   stayed in good shape, scientists put  the spacecraft into hibernation mode. At one point, when New Horizons was at a distance  of about 3 billion miles [5 billion km] away   from Earth, the mission’s team faced technical  difficulties. Being that far away from the Sun,   the 1,000-po und [450-kg] probe didn’t receive  much sunlight to produce sufficient power,   which led to problems with communication. The situation worsened the further the   spacecraft traveled, and by the time New  Horizons probe approached the dwarf planet,   its signal would take about  4.5 hours to reach our planet. Approximately 4 months before approaching Pluto,   the spacecraft’s cameras started revealing  distinct features of the dwarf planet. From   that moment on, the level of details in  New Hor izon’s images increased every week. Another challenge during the mission was  the discovery of Kerberos and Styx – the   two new moons orbiting the dwarf planet. This  meant there could be a lot more space rocks   and dust around Pluto than previously thought.  Researchers had to figure out a way to avoid any   potential problems if there was more debris near  Pluto. The mission team had two backup options:   to either use the antenna acting as a shield  against the incoming particles, or to app roach   the dwarf planet closer than initially  planned, where there might be less debris. Then, 10 days before the  spacecraft’s nearest approach,   something unexpected happened. The  New Horizons probe entered safe mode,   and astronomers lost contact with the spacecraft.  Luckily, it was just an overload on the computer,   a problem with the spacecraft’s command sequence.  The team quickly regained control of the probe,   and decided to take a safety measure – retrieve  a special set of data in case something goes   wrong after the spacecraft turns away from  Earth for its closest encounter with Pluto. The ‘fail-safe’ batch of data contained  images humanity would have missed forever   were something terrible to happen and the  safety measure hadn’t been taken. Nobody   would ever see this stunning image of Pluto with  its famous heart-shaped spot, this compilation   of images showing the dwarf planet from different  angles, or Pluto’s moon Charon in vibrant colors.On July 15, 201 5, the probe’s messages  reached the mission operations base,   notifying astronomers that 13 hours earlier New  Horizons successfully passed above the surface   of Pluto at an altitude of 4,800 miles  [7,800 km], taking hundreds of images,   and gathering scientific data about the  dwarf planet’s atmosphere and its satellites. But retrieving that data was no easy task. If you think the download speeds  from your internet provider are slow,   then check this out…The download of the  estimated 6. 25 gigabytes took a whopping   15 months to get. The probe could only  send out 1-2 kilobits of data per second,   all because of the vast distance  separating New Horizons and Earth. But despite this, it was worth the wait. For  the very first time, humanity got a detailed   close-up view of Pluto’s mountainous terrain, with  some peaks reaching heights of 11,000 feet [3,500   meters], and one that’s made of ice instead of rock. Researchers believe the icy mountain range is no older than 100 million years and is a potential sign of recent geological activity. And here’s another close-up snapshot, but this one is of Charon’s surface, showing evidence of landslides that happened some time in the past. New Horizons has also captured multiple breathtaking haze layers around Pluto’s atmosphere, extending up to 125 miles [200 km] above the celestial body’s surface. The hazes form when ultraviolet sunlight breaks down methane gas particles in Pluto’s atmosphere. Then, methane forms more complicated gasses like ethylene and acetylene, which the probe previously detected in the dwarf planet’s air. These gasses fall to the colder parts of the atmosphere and turn into ice particles that appear as haze layers. This alien atmosphere tells researchers a lot about what’s happening down on Pluto’s surface. There, the sunlight transforms the haze into tholins or dark hydrocarbons that make parts of Pluto’s surface reddish. Close to the largest of them is a white heart-shaped region, where a 600-mile [1,000 km] nitrogen glacier named Sputnik Planitia is located. The glacier is so large, it has no equal in the entire solar system. Astronomers think it’s a relatively new feature on Pluto’s surface, and a quite mysterious one as its origins are still unknown, although some researchers think it’s an impact crater. And there’s a lot of weird stuff going on there. One of those weird things is that on Pluto, ice turns into gas. Ice has one unique f eature called sublimation. If you leave it in a freezer for an extended period of time, it would eventually disappear. This happens as ice slowly transitions from a solid to a gaseous state, skipping the liquid in-between stage because the right temperature doesn’t allow it to melt. The surface region of Sputnik Planitia is covered with geometric shapes made of nitrogen ice, which long puzzled scientists. One possible explanation is that the icy surface of Pluto experiences the s ame effect, but the ice deposits there aren’t consistent all across the surface. When ice on the dwarf planet shrinks, it creates bizarre polygon patterns scattered around Sputnik Planitia that look like icy dunes. Sublimation of ice also creates ridges or blades of ice on Pluto. We have something like that on our planet too, scientists call them penitentes. But unlike several meter-high ice pillars that form on Earth, on Pluto, they can grow much bigger, to the size of skyscrapers , stretching for hundreds of feet high, where methane freezes and evaporates during warmer periods. As this freezing and evaporating continues for millions of years, ice deforms, taking on the shape of blades. Another puzzle behind Sputnik Planitia is its location. Scientists think the region could have moved vast distances across Pluto’s surface in the past. They call the process behind this movement polar wander, and if scientists are right, Sputnik Planitia might be responsible for the rotation of the entire dwarf planet. The famous heart-shaped region on Pluto experiences a positive gravitational anomaly. Gravity there is unlike anywhere else on its terrain, and because of this, it significantly affects the dwarf planet’s rotation. You can achieve the same effect if you stick something heavy on one side of a spinning object, like a frisbee. According to scientific models, this is how the large glacier happened to be located directly opposite of Charon. One theory is that the hidden mass beneath Sputnik Planitia is an ocean, which isn’t an absurd idea. Data from the New Horizons spacecraft demonstrated that both Pluto and Charon are complex celestial bodies with signs of recent geologic and tectonic activity, which indicates a past subsurface ocean on Charon and a possibility of one existing on the dwarf planet even today. So is it theoretically possible life could evolve on such a distant cold rock? On Earth and the Moon, seismomet ers track waves generated by events like earthquakes

In a similar way, during an ultrasound medical examination, sound waves are used to create images of the inside of the human body. The waves bounce back differently depending on the density of the tissues they encounter, which lets medical professionals see inter nal organs. However, on distant worlds, where there are no seismometers, astronomers speculate on the layer composition based on the celestial object’s density. They can then build models based on the most likely materials, like rock and ice. In one of such models, scientists suggested that there’s a hot gooey asphalt layer beneath Pluto’s surface. Initially, it was organic matter, like carbon, which under extreme pressure and temperature can turn into a thick, tar-like substance. K uiper Belt objects usually contain lots of organic matter, and if Pluto also had some of this material in its crust, with time, it could have evolved a 60-mile [100-kilometer] thick inner organic layer. Depending on the conditions inside Pluto, and its chemistry, the layer might have a form of liquid asphalt or solid carbon, like graphite. And it might be mixed with a liquid subsurface ocean. But how could a world that’s separated from the Sun by billions of miles manage to keep th at water from freezing for so long? Billions of years ago, chunks of rock, ice, and dust slowly clumped together to create Pluto and other solar system objects. When the dwarf planet grew big enough, the heat left from its formation could melt chunks of ice that make up a portion of Pluto. This theory works well if we assume a hot beginning. But how can we know for sure if Pluto started out hot or cold? When liquid water reaches a certain temperature, it turns solid, creating cracks along its surface. This happens because water expands when it freezes. You can test this by filling a glass full of water and freezing it overnight. In the morning, you will find that the glass is broken because of the pressure being released as the freezing water expands. Something similar happens on Pluto, just much slower. Frozen water is also less dense, which is why ice can float in liquid water. If Pluto had a hot formation, it should have clear signs of this – its surface wou ld have expanded and cracked as it slowly cooled. And if the dwarf planet started out cold, astronomers should be able to see signs of the opposite – compression in Pluto’s past. The New Horizons has shown scientists craters on Pluto that are nearly as old as our solar system, none of which are compressed. In one study, where researchers theorized there’s an ocean below Sputnik Planitia, they suggested it could be filled with large amounts of ammonia. If that was found to be true, the subsurface ocean wouldn’t be like liquid water, but rather syrupy. Ammonia within it would be colorless, and have an intense, suffocating odor. But what’s fascinating is that this chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen is one of the ingredients for life. And not just that, when ammonia comes in contact with water, it causes a chemical reaction, and the molecule acts as antifreeze keeping that water warmer than it would’ve been otherwise. If other dwarf planets and large ic y moons in our solar system began their journey like Pluto, Earth might not be the sole celestial body harboring a liquid ocean and potential life within. Our solar system could be a vast reservoir of water, both its inner and outer parts, with a variety of aquatic environments. In the scientific community, there’s an idea that the evolution of life might be more favorable in a subsurface ocean than on the surface of a celestial body. Even if separated by billions of miles from t t now, New Horizons is still wandering the Kuiper Belt, after studying a binary trans-neptunian object Arrokoth.