APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

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APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Nov 25, 2015 5:13 am

Image Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto

Explanation: Why are there unusual pits on Pluto? The indentations were discovered during the New Horizons spacecraft's flyby of the dwarf planet in July. The largest pits span a kilometer across and dip tens of meters into a lake of frozen nitrogen, a lake that sprawls across Sputnik Planum, part of the famous light-colored heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio. Although most pits in the Solar System are created by impact craters, these depressions look different -- many are similarly sized, densely packed, and aligned. Rather, it is thought that something has caused these specific areas of ice to sublimate and evaporate away. In fact, the lack of overlying impact craters indicates these pits formed relatively recently. Even though the robotic New Horizons is now off to a new destination, it continues to beam back to Earth new images and data from its dramatic encounter with Pluto.

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Beyond » Wed Nov 25, 2015 5:24 am

Pits?? I only see bumps.
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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by nebosite » Wed Nov 25, 2015 5:55 am

Camp Greenlake!!!

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Guest » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:22 am

What I see are mostly impact craters. True they are closely spaced. Looks like Pluto was hit long ago by a fragmented comet.

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Ann » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:22 am

nebosite wrote:Camp Greenlake!!!

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I thought so too! :mrgreen:

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by BMAONE23 » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:42 am

First thing I saw was the distinct resemblance to Yeast in a Petri dish
Image

Peter Smith

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Peter Smith » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:46 am

BMAONE23 wrote:First thing I saw was the distinct resemblance to Yeast in a Petri dish
Or maybe the pits on a CD

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by StarHopper » Wed Nov 25, 2015 10:08 am

Zoicks! They have a wildebeetle migration!! You can even see the crococrystals in their midsts! :wink:

isoparix

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by isoparix » Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:03 am

This is one of those irritating pics where one simply cannot force one's eyes to see craters, no matter how one orientates one's head or the image. Like previous entry, all I see are pellets strewn over the surface! Oddly enough, if I go to one of the links http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMo ... modest.jpg, I do see craters....

NCTom

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by NCTom » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:49 pm

Are the parallel vertical lines most visible at the top and bottom of the photo actually on the surface or are they a photo/transmission effect?

Guest

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Guest » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:12 pm

Can someone explain what the writing means? NASA/JHU's APL/SwRI

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Ozoz1 » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:18 pm

Looks like the bubbles an indentations that form when you cook a pancake on a hot griddle...,)

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by heehaw » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:35 pm

Looks to me like an aerial view of the Serengeti. Those are gnus.

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Keyman » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:53 pm

Guest wrote:Can someone explain what the writing means? NASA/JHU's APL/SwRI
Those are photo credits: NASA, Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute. Beneath the picture, you'l see links to each.

I also have trouble seeing them as dips, not bumps. But if you look and think,'if these *are* dips, and the sun is coming from upper-leftish', they magically depress.

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Beyond » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:24 pm

isoparix wrote:This is one of those irritating pics where one simply cannot force one's eyes to see craters, no matter how one orientates one's head or the image. Like previous entry, all I see are pellets strewn over the surface! Oddly enough, if I go to one of the links http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMo ... modest.jpg, I do see craters....
Ahhh, pits.
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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by starsurfer » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:44 pm

Pluto continues to astound and surprise everyone holding the world captivated while it whirls its long path around the Sun! Looking at this picture does funny things to my eyes?! :?:

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Whiskybreath » Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:18 pm

NCTom wrote:Are the parallel vertical lines most visible at the top and bottom of the photo actually on the surface or are they a photo/transmission effect?
Exactly the question I was going to ask. There does seem to be correspondence in some areas.

tfadams

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by tfadams » Wed Nov 25, 2015 5:17 pm

To quote from the Beatles "A Day in the Life"
"I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall."

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Post by neufer » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:00 pm

starsurfer wrote:
Pluto continues to astound and surprise everyone holding the world captivated while it whirls its long path around the Sun!

Looking at this picture does funny things to my eyes?! :?:
...Paralyze the living :!:

Just as the Plutonians had planned.
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plutosplanets

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by plutosplanets » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:02 pm

looks like a bunch of cattle grazing on the range

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Boomer12k » Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:25 pm

Has anyone thought it might be Tidal Forces and stretching? Or a type of Warming Effect? Like Phobos? After all it is has Charon and 4 other moons.

But as it is on a Nitrogen Lake....I expect Out-gassing...maybe when Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune it is a tad warmer? Pluto's atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen...had to come from somewhere... :ssmile:

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by neufer » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:03 pm

Boomer12k wrote:
Has anyone thought it might be Tidal Forces and stretching? Or a type of Warming Effect? Like Phobos? After all it is has Charon and 4 other moons.
Charon's orbital eccentricity is very low (<0.01) such that tidal forces are very constant
(and the other moons are too small to be considered).
Boomer12k wrote:
But as it is on a Nitrogen Lake....I expect Out-gassing...maybe when Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune it is a tad warmer? Pluto's atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen...had to come from somewhere... :ssmile:
Pluto's orbital eccentricity is quite large (~ 0.25) and it just passed through perihelion so this is more likely.
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by quigley » Wed Nov 25, 2015 10:46 pm

To me it looks as if the subsurface is cracked and the pits are where the surface "ice", perhaps in a snow-like state, has sifted down into the cracks. Especially the curved, parallel rows of these pits suggest to me a series of crevasse-type structures beneath? Is this possible?

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Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by Martin » Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:20 pm

Reminds me of the pits/holes near Pisco Valley, Peru on a plain called Cajamarquilla.

Link: http://www.world-mysteries.com/pisco2ed.jpg

:shock:

SouthEastAsia

Re: APOD: Unusual Pits Discovered on Pluto (2015 Nov 25)

Post by SouthEastAsia » Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:56 pm

My question would be: where is the Sun in relation to this photo? Are there shadows??

Confusing pic nonetheless to me, as there definitely seems to be multiple intricate patterns of various orientations and not some random or singular effect causing these formations.

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