Pluto Stuns Scientists with Startling Complexity with New Horizons Data

First Posted: Oct 15, 2015 04:25 PM EDT

The New Horizons spacecraft's historic flyby of Pluto has given scientists a lot of information about the icy world. Now, scientists have released their range of findings about the Pluto system in their first research paper today.

"The New Horizons mission completes our initial reconnaissance of the solar system, giving humanity our first look at this fascinating world and its system of moons," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, in a news release. "New Horizons is not only writing the textbook on the Pluto system, it's serving to inspire current and future generations to keep exploring-to keep searching for what's beyond the next hill."

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reached a distance of 8,507 miles from Pluto's surface during its closest approach on July 14. During this time, the spacecraft gathered a trove of data that will take almost another year to return to Earth. The data returned so far, though, shows that Pluto has a varied terrain that varies not just in composition and surface reflectivity, but also in color. There is also evidence for a water-rich crust and multiple haze layers in Pluto's atmosphere.

Charon, Pluto's moon, also is surprisingly active. Like Pluto, it shows a surprising degree of geological complexity with extensive resurfacing, extensional tectonics, and a puzzling dark terrain at its North Pole. There are also variations in the composition of its crust.

While no new satellites were detected, New Horizons also provided the first resolved images of Pluto's smaller moons, Nix and Hydra; Nix is about 34 miles long while Hydra is about 27 miles long. Their surface reflectivities are also significantly higher than Charon's.

Currently, researchers are still combing through the data New Horizons is sending back. So far, though, the findings are significant, and tell us far more about the Pluto system than ever before.

The research paper is published in the journal Science.

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Tagspluto, Planet, Charon, New Horizons, NASA New Horizons Spacecraft, World, Dwarf Planet, NASA, NASA’s