As NASA’s New Horizon approaches the Pluto, scientists are getting more and more accurate data on the complex geology of the planet.
Judging by the latest images, the surface of the dwarf planet is littered with complex geological formations of great interest to astronomers.
“We are finally close enough to Pluto to begin analyzing the structure of its surface,” said Kurt Neybor, a scientist from the New Horizons program at NASA's Washington division.
Particular attention is drawn to the formation, called "whale". It occupies a large proportion of the planet's surface and is dark, sharply contrasted against the background of the surrounding areas, a plain. The whale is clearly visible in the photograph of LORRI (wide-range thermal imager).
Kurt Neybor is busy exploring the gray region right near the whale's tail: "This is a unique transitional area in which complex geological processes take place, which attracts the attention of the scientific community."
“Among the structures found, there are polygonal formations, a complex chain of faults about a thousand and a half kilometers long, and the whale border where dark and light areas meet,” adds Alan Sten, a researcher from the New Horizons group. “Now it has become clear that the long nine years of flight through the space of the solar system to Pluto have fully paid off.” The detail of the images received from the probe grows in proportion to the approach of the New Horizons to the dwarf planet. The last photo taken with the help of LORRI was taken from a distance of 4.5 million kilometers, but even at such a distance the accuracy of the image is quite high: 27 km / pixel.
The historical approach of the probe to Pluto is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14th. Then humanity will receive the most detailed photos of the most distant planet and its moons. This momentous event will complete the study of all the celestial bodies of the classical 9-planetary solar system by means of unmanned spacecraft. In addition, a close examination of the celestial body will not only reveal a lot about the origin of our solar system, but also dispel doubts about the planetary status of Pluto.
In 2006, Pluto was “demoted”. Then the International Astronomical Association changed its category from “planet” to “dwarf planets”. The motive of this change was the study of Cooper Belt - the revolutionary assumption that in the solar system there may be hundreds of planets, instead of the classic nine. This discovery was confirmed by the development of research equipment.
The reassignment of Pluto gave rise to a new form of planetary bodies - dwarf planets. For the past few years, debates have been raging around Pluto, both in scientific circles and in society. And all disputes always come down to what the term “planet” means and what should relate to it. This data seems to be completely out of date after a detailed study of Pluto (the mission to remotely research the dwarf planet will take several months, during which the New Horizons will gather all the most important information).
In the end, there is the view that Pluto is representative of a completely new class of planets, differing not in size, but in a unique configuration. Pluto's biggest moon, Charon, does not rotate around the planet. The mass of the satellite is so large that it is able to change the trajectory of motion of Pluto itself, creating something like a binary system of planets in which two celestial bodies rotate around a common center of mass. This makes it possible to assume that there is a whole discharge of planetary bodies — binary planets.
