Dwarf Planet Pluto Has Light and Dark Terrains, New Horizons Images Reveal

First Posted: Jun 12, 2015 08:33 AM EDT

The surface of Pluto is getting more detailed as New Horizons closes in on the planet. Scientists have received a closer look at the tiny planet with a series of new images taken by the spacecraft's telescopic Long range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).

Pluto is a complex world with very bright and very dark terrain. There are also areas of intermediate brightness in between.

In order to capture these latest images, the scientists used a technique called deconvolution to sharpen the raw, unprocessed pictures that the spacecraft beams back to Earth; the contrast in these latest images has also been stretched to bring out additional details. Deconvolution can occasionally produce artifacts, so researchers plan to carefully review the newer images to determine whether some of the details seen in the images are actually there.

"Even though the latest images were made from more than 30 million miles away, they show an increasingly complex surface with clear evidence of discrete equatorial and dark regions-some that may also have variations in brightness," said Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator, in a news release. "We can see that every face of Pluto is different and that Pluto's northern hemisphere displays substantial dark terrains, though both Pluto's darkest and its brightest known terrain units are just south of, or on, its equator. Why this is so is an emerging puzzle."

The new images reveal new details that have never been seen before. In fact, they indicate an increasingly complex and nuanced surface.

"Now, we want to start to learn more about what these various surface units might be and what's causing them," said Hal Weaver, one of the researchers. "By early July, we will have spectroscopic data to help pinpoint that."

For more information, check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).