geology – Page 9 – planetaria

Image Gallery: Pluto mountains and plains mosaic in colour

July 23, 2015 by Paul Scott Anderson

The icy mountains and plains in the “heart” of Pluto. Click for larger version. Image Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI/Thomas Appéré

Another beautiful mosaic image of the icy mountains and plains in the southern “heart” region of Pluto, this time in colour with image processing by Thomas Appéré. The mountains on the left have been named Norgay Montes and the plains are now known as Sputnik Planum. Plus more Pluto information and images at the next press briefing tomorrow!

Image Gallery: another mountain range on Pluto and new mosaic

July 22, 2015 by Paul Scott Anderson

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Another amazing image of Pluto’s surface has been released, showing a second mountain range similar to the one previously photographed by New Horizons. The peaks in this range are estimated to be from 1 to 1.5 kilometres (0.5 mile to 1 mile tall), similar to the Appalachian Mountains in the U.S., and like the others, composed of solid water ice.

Image Gallery: icy cracked plains on Pluto

July 17, 2015 by Paul Scott Anderson

Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute — Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

A new close-up view of Pluto’s surface was released today, this time showing an expanse of icy plains next to the previous mountains imaged earlier. More bizarre and unexpected terrain, with polygons similar to ones seen in icy regions on Mars and Earth, but on a larger scale, and how they’re formed here isn’t known yet. Other mounds and small pits are also visible. As noted in the press conference again, Pluto is turning out to show much more evidence for geological activity than had been anticipated. This image version still has compression artifacts in it, but there are more and higher-resolution images to come!

Image Gallery: the mountains and canyons of Pluto and Charon

July 16, 2015 by Paul Scott Anderson

The icy mountains of Pluto. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

The first-ever closeup view of Pluto’s surface from the flyby by New Horizons has been released, as well as the best view yet of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. The new Pluto image shows mountains up to 3,500 metres (11,000 feet) tall in this region, unexpected on such a small, cold planetary body. They are thought to be made of solid water ice and no more than 100,000 years old, which is very young geologically. Those and other features suggest that Pluto may still be geologically active even now.

Curiosity finds first evidence for possible ‘continental crust’ on Mars

July 15, 2015 by Paul Scott Anderson

View of an igneous clast named Harrison which is embedded in a conglomerate rock in Gale crater, and features elongated light-toned feldspar crystals. This mosaic is a combination of an image from Mastcam with higher-resolution images from ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/IRAP/U. Nantes/IAS/MSSS — View of an igneous clast named Harrison which is embedded in a conglomerate rock in Gale crater, and features elongated light-toned feldspar crystals. This mosaic is a combination of an image from Mastcam with higher-resolution images from ChemCam’s Remote Micro-Imager. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/IRAP/U. Nantes/IAS/MSSS

The Curiosity rover, still roaming in Gale crater, has discovered the first evidence for a potential ancient “continental crust” on Mars, which would be a very significant finding regarding Mars’ early history and to what degree it may have paralleled Earth’s.

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