back to article Behold: Pluto's huge ICE MOUNTAINS ... and signs of cryovolcanoes?

NASA has revealed the first high-resolution photograph of Pluto's surface, and the first proper picture of its largest moon Charon – and they are frankly very strange indeed. The Pluto snap shows ice mountains 11,000ft tall, and on both pics there are perplexing signs of geological activity – perhaps even cryovolcanoes spewing …

  1. Mark 85
    Pint

    Just amazing..

    This changes what we thought about other planets a bit. I'm just like "wow!"... and can't wait for the rest of the science to received and examined. No telling what other surprises are waiting.....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Massive Ice Mountains can mean only one thing...

      Skiing holidays!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The cartoonist Matt in the Telegraph often makes me smile, or even laugh, with his tangential take on current affairs. Here's his one for the Pluto flypast - and it even has an IT slant.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

    1. Kiwi
      Happy

      Looks like they may disappear in time. Hopefully this direct link will help future generations.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/?cartoon=11742806&cc=11644969

      Thanks for the original post

  3. John Halewood

    Vulcanism

    "We've seen this activity in smaller bodies than Pluto, but only on moons orbiting gas giants. It had been thought that the immense gravitational pressures of these moons' host planets kneaded the interior with tidal forces that keep them geologically active."

    Considering the inclination of the orbit and how elliptical it is (we haven't seen it complete a full orbit yet), the data would seem to indicate that it was recently (in a cosmological sense) a moon of one of one of the gas giants that has got kicked out somehow . How it picked up a bunch of moons by itself on the way is a little more confusing.

    Apologies if I seem to be stating the obvious.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vulcanism

      "How it picked up a bunch of moons by itself on the way is a little more confusing."

      There was a comment that it is like the theory for the Earth's moon - a large impact knocked some of Pluto's material into orbit to coalesce as moons.

      1. John Halewood

        Re: Vulcanism

        The spectroscopic data should sort that out - might have to wait 18 months for it to get back....

      2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        Re: Vulcanism

        There was a comment that it is like the theory for the Earth's moon - a large impact knocked some of Pluto's material into orbit to coalesce as moons.

        This theory had some general level of acceptance until New Horizons got closer and it turns out the albedo of Pluto and Charon are too different to comfortably accommodate this theory (Charon is quite a lot darker than Pluto). Now we see that both bodies are quite a lot less cratered than we might expect, which throws up further questions. This is all good, because it means there is still plenty of interesting science to do.

    2. Christoph

      Re: Vulcanism

      It would have had to have been kicked out extremely recently, or it would have picked up some obvious cratering. But it would then have had to settle into a stable orbit, with all other traces of the kicking also vanishing. Considering the time it needs to do even one orbit, I don't think it's anywhere near possible - the time to settle into the orbit is longer than the time to pick up obvious cratering.

    3. Kharkov
      Alien

      Re: Vulcanism

      Gasp! Signs of the Grebulons (Douglas Adams book, Mostly Harmless...) have been found!

      This means... we'll soon be removed in order to improve their horoscope, oh noes!

      Still, cool pictures of Pluto & Charon. Well worth our coming obliteration, says I.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: Vulcanism

      I think that Pluto's orbit has resonances with Neptune's, you can work out how long those resonances take to settle down and it's too long: it's been in orbit around the Sun for long enough that it should be cool.

  4. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    A few answers...

    ... and lots more questions...

    Science!

    1. Mark 85

      Re: A few answers...

      Isn't that the way it's supposed to be: "For every answer, there pops up two more questions."????

  5. harmjschoonhoven
    Thumb Up

    Now the hard work starts,

    naming all those surface features. Luckily the chance the number of people in the New Horizons team is odd is 50%.

  6. Lee D Silver badge

    What strikes me most about the various planets is quite how boring Uranus is in comparison to all the others. We now know that Pluto isn't just a dull sphere but an interesting, rock-like world with all kinds of activity and differences over its surface.

    But Uranus? Go find a picture. It's never anything more than a blue orb.

    I suppose, though, that one planet needs to be different, even if that means being different by being utterly boring. Uranus is the geek at the back of the class... :-)

    1. P. Lee
      Alien

      From https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/

      Uranus: Uranus is a strange, uniform bluish orb. There are high winds and it’s bitterly cold. It’s the friendliest of the gas giants to our Cessna, and you could probably fly for a little while. But given that it seems to be an almost completely featureless planet, why would you want to?

      Of course, being science, this is probably wildly inaccurate. We just need someone in a Cessna to go and take some pictures for us.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Uranus Boring?

      Uranus is not boring if you remember the fact that its axis of rotation is tilted over 97.77 deg, and its ring system shares this orientation. So something pretty damn interesting happened to Uranus and did so before the current rings formed.

      1. Nuno
        Alien

        and still...

        There is life in Uranus!

      2. Tim Starling

        Re: Uranus Boring?

        The Voyager 2 pictures of Uranus were pretty much featureless, but that was at the summer solstice. Since its axis of rotation points almost at the sun, it doesn't have much diurnal variation in solar radiation to drive weather. It has a remarkably low internal heat. Pictures of Uranus from the HST taken closer to the time of the equinox show storms and bands: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/32/image/c/format/large_web/

        We know so little about Uranus. Its atmosphere does not retain a geological record; how much could you say about the Earth by looking at its clouds? The rocky surfaces of Uranus's moons may hold clues as to its history.

    3. Tom Womack

      Uranus has weather from time to time

      If you google-images 'Uranus Keck' there are some pictures of outbreaks of large white spots on the planet in August 2014; it was in a boring state when Voyager flew past it, but occasionally it wakes up.

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Uranus has weather from time to time

        Obligatory:

        Professor Hubert Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.

        Fry: Oh. What's it called now?

        Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Urrectum. Here, let me locate it for you.

  7. Pliny the Whiner

    The obvious downside

    Unfortunately, they had to detonate a nuke to play the role of a "flash bulb," which nearly incinerated our little friend. Pluto is no longer a planet or even a dwarf planet; it's an ice cube.

    Great picture, though.

  8. RIBrsiq

    "Hmm... That's funny..."

  9. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Wow

    Most of the solar systems planets, moons and the like have been passed by or landed on in my lifetime.

    All bar one:

    Craft - Venera 1 (Венера-1)

    Target - Venus

    Passed by - 19 May 1961

    Contact with Venera 1 was lost 7 days after launch. It was the first spacecraft to fly by Venus, or indeed any planet.

    [wikipedia]

    1. Andrew Newstead

      Re: Wow

      Not quite accurate I'm afraid. Venus has had quite few spacecraft visit it, the latest being ESAs Venus Express. This number has included a number of landers and atmosphere probes.

      1. Stoneshop

        Re: Wow

        As I read it, the first probe to visit another planet, Venera, did so just outside Winkypop's lifetime.

        1. Winkypop Silver badge

          Re: Wow [Stoneshop]

          Yes this ^^^

          Maybe I worded it poorly.

          Everything has whizzed about or landed in my lifetime, bar one.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Wow [Stoneshop]

            "Everything has whizzed about or landed in my lifetime, bar one."

            Some of us remember when Sputnik's bleeps were a new wonder.

  10. Johndoe888
    Alien

    Cause for concern

    https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience/photos/a.456449604376056.98921.367116489976035/1158720694148940/?type=1&theater

  11. Roj Blake Silver badge
    Alien

    Yuggoth

    Why is NASA not showing us the images of the Mi-Go cities?

    1. Irony Deficient

      Re: Yuggoth

      Roj, I dare not type more than what was revealed in Sonnet X:

      I knew those fires were brewing monstrous things,

      And that those birds of space had been Outside

      I guessed to what dark planet’s crypts they plied,

      And what they brought from Thog beneath their wings.

      The others laughed — till struck too mute to speak

      By what they glimpsed in one bird’s evil beak.

    2. Richard Wharram

      Re: Yuggoth

      Because that would cause 'Insanity, Permanent.'

      "Roll for SAN loss..."

      1. launcap Silver badge

        Re: Yuggoth

        > "Roll for SAN loss..."

        Sorry - character class [PHB] does not allow for a SAN score..

  12. Yugguy

    The more we learn

    The more we realise the less we know.

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: The more we learn

      I wouldn't say we know *less*.

      We definitely know more, but we also know that there is a lot more to learn!

      1. Yugguy

        Re: The more we learn

        Aye, that's what I meant, less in a relative term to the total amount of knowledge.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mostly...

    I'm just worried that they now seem to have spotted where Cthulhu lies dreaming...

    1. Muscleguy

      Re: mostly...

      Except Pluto, god of the underworld has him in his clutches. Only Orpheus has returned from Hades. If you recall your Greek myths Charon is the ferryman over the Styx. So to escape Cthulu will have to persuade Charon to ferry him, and Charon is on the other side of the Styx and does not ferry anyone, other than Orpheus, back the other way. I rather think instead that Charon is rowing around Pluto laughing at Cthulu's impotence.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: mostly...Only Orpheus has returned from Hades.

        And Dionysius (Aristophanes: The Frogs)

        However, if Charon is the ferryman, and Pluto/Hades is the god of the Underworld, where's the River Styx? Is it the Kuiper Belt, and if so where are the frogs?

        1. David Nash Silver badge

          Re: mostly...Only Orpheus has returned from Hades.

          "where's the River Styx?"

          From Wikipedia (where else?) on "Moons of Pluto":

          "The dwarf planet Pluto has five known moons. In order of distance from Pluto they are Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra"

          Can't help you with the frogs, I'm afraid.

          1. Kubla Cant

            Re: mostly...Only Orpheus has returned from Hades.

            Can't help you with the frogs, I'm afraid.

            In space, no-one can hear you ribbett brekekekex koax koax.

    2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: mostly...

      Should really have called it R'Lyeh...

      1. Richard Wharram

        Re: mostly...

        Cthulhu lies dreaming in R'Lyeh which is on Earth, not Yuggoth.

        You may be thinking of Cxaxukluth.

        Obviously.

  14. Doctor_Wibble
    Alien

    Obvious what it is now

    Pluto's surface is smooth with a load of crap that's fallen on top of it because it's a hull of the now-dead drive and gravitational core of a mini travelling planet system pair, Charon being the habitable part of the ship right up until it got hit (that big Mordor crater) with the massive peanut of doom that killed the crew, left the thing drifting unpiloted until it got captured by our sun's gravity, hence the hinky orbit.

    And because it's really old everything has rusted away or evaporated so you would need someone to go there and dig a bit and use one of those little brushes because obviously you won't be able to see the controls from way up in orbit.

  15. TitterYeNot
    Coat

    Charon and spacy

    "We originally thought Charon might be a heavily cratered terrain," she said. "It wasn't. What we saw just blew our socks off."

    I'm presuming they were proper 80's white socks. And where are the pics of Pluto's sixth moon, Traevor?

    Gosh, is that the time, I really must be going...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "I'm presuming they were proper 80's white socks."

    Or day-glo pink or green from two decades earlier.

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