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NASA Releases High-Res Images of Pluto’s 'Dragon Scales'

The latest from New Horizons.
Close-up of most detailed color map of Pluto. Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

NASA has released the highest resolution color images of Pluto ever taken, captured by the New Horizons probe during its flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14. This latest dispatch is hot off the cosmic press, having only been received by scientists last weekend, and includes the most detailed color map of Pluto produced yet.

Most detailed color map of Pluto ever. Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

You can zoom into various locations on this cylindrical projection map to get a closer look at Pluto's diverse and perplexing landscapes. Among them is a newly discovered patch of curiously ruffled ridges resembling snakeskin, according to the New Horizons team.

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"It's a unique and perplexing landscape stretching over hundreds of miles," said NASA geophysicist William McKinnon in a statement . "It looks more like tree bark or dragon scales than geology."

Pluto's "snakeskin." Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

It's not obvious what kinds of natural forces created these bizarre reptilian formations. "This'll really take time to figure out," McKinnon said, speculating that "maybe it's some combination of internal tectonic forces and ice sublimation driven by Pluto's faint sunlight."

In addition to unveiling previously unseen features of Pluto's surface, the new images from the spacecraft, which is currently hurtling deeper into the Kuiper belt, included higher resolution images of the regions that have already been discovered.

For example, the dunes of the region known as Sputnik Planum, which is on the western side of the famous heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio, were exposed in intricately beautiful detail.

The Sputnik Planum in high res. Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

From this distance, the image almost looks like the sandy deserts or tropical beaches of Earth, though the formations are actually icy ripples surrounding two mountains. The new data also revealed that this alien expanse is rich in methane.

New Horizons was able to image Pluto in such high resolution with the help of two instruments in particular: the wide-angle Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC), nicknamed Ralph in a reference to The Honeymooners, and the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).

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Ralph is equipped with a spectrometer, a magnifying telescope, and several color and panchromatic imagers, all of which run on less than half the energy required by the average light bulb. It's considered the "main eyes" of the spacecraft, responsible for wide-field imagery and sweeping color composites.

LORRI, on the other hand, is outfitted with a much more powerful magnifying telescope, and is considered to be the "eagle eyes" of New Horizons. Thanks to its superior zoom, this camera provided the first images of Pluto two months before the closest approach in July, and is capable of resolving features down to the scale of about 50 meters.

Together, Ralph and LORRI have brought us closer than ever to the farflung Plutonian system, which has captivated so many people since it was first discovered in 1930.

"With these just-downlinked images and maps, we've turned a new page in the study of Pluto beginning to reveal the planet at high resolution in both color and composition," said New Horizons principle investigator Alan Stern in a statement. "I wish Pluto's discoverer Clyde Tombaugh had lived to see this day."

Given that this latest batch of images from New Horizons includes the most detailed color maps of the demoted planet ever taken—complete with dragon-scale features, no less—it's hard to imagine what the next downlink will unveil. The only safe bet is that as NASA brings Pluto into sharper focus, longstanding questions will be resolved, and new mysteries will emerge in their place.