New Images Of Pluto Reveal Mysterious Dotted Line Running Along Its Equator – NASA To Explain Soon?
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has revealed a strange dotted line on Pluto that is so consistent, it could be artificially created.
As the spacecraft closes in on the most disputed dwarf planet, Pluto, it has taken and beamed back the closest ever images of Pluto’s distinctly beige surface. A composite of these images have revealed a series of very large and evenly spaced dark spots running along its equator. Scientists analyzing the images aren’t sure how the spots appeared, but they are baffled at the stringent geometric consistency.
These spots are consistently sized and spaced. NASA has stated that each spot is 480 kilometers (300 miles) in diameter, said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern,
“It’s a real puzzle – we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out.”
Apart from the strange dark spots circling Pluto’s equator, images obtained of the icy dwarf’s own moon, Charon, has raised more questions than answered any, continued Stern.
“Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colors and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and greyer moon Charon.”
The images captured by New Horizons’ onboard Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were black-and-white. However, the team at NASA turned them into true-color versions using the lower-resolution color data gathered by the spacecraft’s Ralph imaging instrument. These instruments will prove critical in determining if Pluto has an atmosphere and if clouds circulate in the lower stratosphere, added one of the team, postdoc researcher Kelsi Singer.
“We’re looking for clouds in our images using a number of techniques. If we find clouds, their presence will allow us to track the speeds and directions of Pluto’s winds.”
New Horizons is merely nine days away from a flyby from Pluto and its moons, but it has already sent back a lifetime worth of data about the planet that has the longest elliptical orbit around the sun. Worryingly, the spacecraft has gone into an “automated safe mode,” and NASA has lost contact. However, scientists aren’t worried, as they have built in an “encounter mode” to override the safe mode and jump-start communications in case the spacecraft doesn’t make contact with base-station by July 14.
As New Horizons independently approaches Pluto, scientists expect to collect more data about the planet and solve the mystery of the dotted line, too. In the meantime, they are waiting with bated breath for the spacecraft to reestablish contact.
[Image Credit: NASA]
