NASA is now publishing high resolution movies & pictures that clearly understand what the surface of Pluto actually is

It is a Pluto that was disassociated from the planet, but because it is too far, what is the surface actually like? Actually I did not understand well. However, NASA synthesized image images obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope over four years using 20 computers using a special algorithm, as a result of knowing the state of the surface which has not been clarified until now is.

The above image is a part of it, it is like this kind of Madara pattern and the northern hemisphere part shines brighter more because it is turning around the sun in the elliptical orbit over 248 years, 1 It is said that because seasons last as long as 120 years and elliptical orbits, each season is asymmetric, ice on the surface (minus 230 degrees - minus 210 degrees) melts and repeats freezing again .

High resolution images and movie playback are from the following.
NASA - New Hubble Maps of Pluto Show Surface Changes

This is the state of Pluto's surface. It rotates from 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees in order from the left.


This is what made it easy to understand what it looks like if it looks stereoscopically.


It turns like this if you turn it at a more detailed angle.


Looking at the movie looks like the following.

YouTube - How the surface of Pluto actually is


The mottled pattern on the surface is a feeling like white · dark orange · charcoal black, the full color is dark and red carbon rich residue color. It seems that this is because methane existing on the surface of Pluto continues to be destroyed by the ultraviolet rays from the far away sun.

In fact, comparing the photograph of Pluto taken by Hubble in 1994 and the new set of images taken in 2002 and 2003 and this time, the Arctic region became brighter, and on the other hand The southern hemisphere is getting darker.

The top is 1994, the bottom is 2002 · 2003.


Given these changes, it is implied that there is a very complicated process that affects visible surfaces, and Pluto is not simply a ice and rock ball, but a dramatic atmosphere change It is interpreted to indicate that it is a global world. Furthermore, when comparing 1998 and 2002, the amount of air has doubled, which is expected to have occurred because nitrogen ice on the surface of Pluto was heated and sublimed.

In 2015, a new spacecraft "New Horizons" approaches Pluto, and it is planned to shoot one hemisphere in even higher detail, and furthermore it is expected to be able to elucidate this complicated atmospheric system etc. I will.