Scientific research on the mission to discover Pluto

Three months after the last meeting of the New Horizons mission, scientists from NASA finally revealed details about what they found on the dwarf planet. Alan Stern, the planetary scientist responsible for Pluto's mission, was the one who represented the US Aeronautics and Space Agency to present really valuable information.

Published research on Pluto

In July 2015, Pluto and its "satellites" became the focus of scientists, journalists and astronomers around the world. They analyzed each picture that New Horizons sent with the hope of learning more about the new ice-dwarf planet.

With what has been collected from New Horizons, the NASA team confirmed that Pluto and his moons are truly dynamic and colorful. In addition, the signs of recent geological activity as well as surface characteristics dating from the early days of our solar system have caused many surprises to human understanding.

The Pluto

The researchers claim that Pluto has a core radius of 1,187km (with an error of 4km), which is larger than previously anticipated. This information instantly turns Pluto into a planet with 'diverse terrain' , including a cold, thick ice cover.

Craters are a major factor on the surface of dwarf planets, with pits up to 260 km in diameter. Some craters have been broken or filled with material over time, next to those still intact. Cthulhu Regio - a very dark area ordered to the southwest of the Tombaugh Regio "famous heart" is the most devastated place. This location also shows evidence of tectonic activities, with steep hills and valleys measuring 600km.

Ice water (marked in blue) was discovered to exist on Pluto a few weeks ago.

For the Sputnik Planum - a flat plain in the west of the planet , no crater has yet been discovered. This is said to be quite a special area on Pluto. In fact, the number of craters varies depending on the age of the surface in that area, the researchers said. Large craters are often located in areas with aging surfaces, similar to what we see with the Earth's Moon.

However, scientists still do not know what led to the process of resurfacing, while erasing craters, such as the Sputnik Planum region. This delta is made up of dozens of kilometers of soil, capable of forming by a process similar to the way dry mud appears on Earth.

Sputnik Planum region.

The last information that NASA wants us to know: Pluto is a colorful planet. Look at it through a color camera on New Horizons and you'll see a "spectacular variety ," the researchers stressed.

The images that we have seen completely without forgery - Pluto actually has very clear colors.The Cthulhu Regio area features a deep red color, the western part of the "Tombaugh Regio heart" is a half-reddish pink and a half with a lighter pink color. These colors are obtained by heat-resistant organic substances called "tholins" , the combined product of nitrogen and frozen methane in soil (and air) is irradiated by UV rays with other particles.

Charon - Pluto's moon

The largest moon of Pluto - Charon even contains more mysteries than its master star . And of course the secrets exist only before the historic flight was made in July this year. By a quarter of the size of Pluto, the planet makes scientists more difficult to study because its distance is quite far away. The ideas are nothing interesting, but this star has fascinated the experts because it is a world as diverse as Pluto, and they also find evidence of geological activity here.

Charon's detailed studies reveal that the planet has a "complex geology" composition , from bombarded areas to plains, large fractures, deep canyons, . to changes. Great change in surface brightness as well as huge black spots around the North Pole. In addition, hundreds of kilometers of slopes at the pole are also thought to be the result of some major impact or "complex constructivism".

Pluto and Charon "satellite".

Like Pluto, Charon was also severely devastated by meteor attacks. The New Horizons team believes that one of the craters on the planet was formed more than 4 billion years ago, and may have some connection to the Late Heavy Bombardment event that occurred in the early days. Fairy of the Solar System. Charon also owns a huge network of canyons. These cracks are concentrated mostly in the Southern Hemisphere of Charon, with the two largest marks named Macross Chasma and Serenity Chasma - lasting up to 1050km. The largest place is in Serenity Chasma gorge with a distance of 60km and 5km deep.

Charon's color "is much more limited than Pluto" , but the Arctic area possesses a clear red color, the researchers said. This stems from certain reasons. One is the chemical compound on the planet when exposed to sunlight as well as radiation will become 'tholins', similar to Pluto. The second reason may be because Charon's surface has another component deep underground, and the color has been blown up as a result of a major impact.

Other moons

New Horizons has so far provided scientists with a more accurate comparison with Charon and other 'satellites' of Pluto like Nix and Hydra . However, the parameters of the other two moons, Styx and Kerberos, are still on this ship because by the end of 2016, all new data will arrive on Earth.

Nix is ​​rectangular, 49km long and 32km wide, with a diameter of about 40km. Nix's reflective properties show that this small moon is likely to be covered by ice. About Hydra, this star is not spherical, with numbers measuring 43km and 33km, about 41km in diameter. And like Nix, observations by New Horizons indicate that the surface of the planet is simply frozen water.

The findings for the two moons raised a question that had no answer: "How can such bright surfaces be maintained on Nix and Hydra over billions of years?" , NASA wondered. Radiation or other factors make the surface of the satellites darker and darker over time, they say. The detailed information about the volume and volume as well as the density of the planets is still unknown.

The next mission?

New Horizons.

Although only a tenth of the data has been received, scientists have been able to show us a lot of useful information. There are still 90% of information on New Horizons spacecraft and NASA experts will continue to work hard to make new announcements about their mission.

As for New Horizons, its next mission is to travel to the planet 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper belt, located more than 1.6 billion kilometers from Pluto. If all goes well, by 2019, New Horizons will approach the aforementioned celestial bodies, giving us new insights into the origin of the Green Planet in the universe.