NASA researchers just published a study about their findings regarding Pluto and its moons, based on data received from the New Horizons spacecraft which flew by the planet for the first time three months ago.
Of course, these are only the initial findings, and the scientific team has a lot of data to go through, but what we know so far is already surprising.
First, the study states that Pluto is actually larger than we initially thought: Pluto has a radius of about 737 miles. Of course, this will probably reignite the debate over Pluto's previous planetary status—Pluto is actually a dwarf planet and its demotion from actual planet status didn't have anything to do with size.
However, even more surprising is how diverse and colorful Pluto is. Its various regions contain a "diverse range of landforms," which even includes a crust made mostly of water ice. Pluto is also covered with impact craters, some as large as 160 miles in diameter. Some of these craters have "ice-rich deposits" within them. The area named after H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, in particular, has the most craters on the surface of the dwarf planet, which indicates that it has a high volume of tectonic activity.
"We found that Pluto's surface displays a wide variety of landforms and terrain ages, as well as substantial albedo, color, and compositional variation," wrote the scientists. "Evidence was also found for a water ice-rich crust, geologically young surface units, tectonic extension, surface volatile ice convection, possible wind streaks, volatile transport, and glacial flow. "
Another surprising feature of Pluto is that it's colorful, as seen in photos released of the dwarf planet. Those varying shades of reds and pinks are a sign of "tholins," which occur when frozen nitrogen and methane in Pluto's atmosphere and soil get hit with UV rays and charged particles.
We also learned more about Pluto's moons, including its largest, Charon, which is as geologically diverse as Pluto itself.
"Pluto's large moon Charon displays extensional tectonics and extensive resurfacing, as well as possible evidence for a heterogeneous crustal composition; its north pole displays puzzling dark terrain," write the New Horizons scientists. "The sizes of Pluto's small satellites Nix and Hydra were measured for the first time, as were their surface reflectivities, which are puzzlingly higher than Charon's."
New Horizons also searched for other moons, but found none.
These findings, though, are just the tip of the iceberg. This research only covers about 10 percent of the data New Horizons collected, with much of it still onboard the spacecraft.
