It seems only fitting that the first clear image of our demoted planet, Pluto, revealed a giant heart-shaped geographic feature, as if to send a love note to Arizonans, where the distant icy world was discovered 85 years ago.
During the third week of July, Lowell Observatory’s Will Grundy played a prominent role in the celebrated fly-by of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft. Grundy leads the mission’s surface composition team and balanced his time during this frenetic week between analyzing incoming data and explaining mission highlights to the 200 media representatives who flocked to the mission’s operations center at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
As New Horizons gathered so-called fail-safe data just before its closest approach (in the event the spacecraft was destroyed by impacting a previously undetected moon, the mission would not have been a total loss), Grundy could really start looking at some exciting information, though this will serve merely as a warm-up for what will be streamed back to Earth in the next year and a half.
From this fail-safe data, Grundy and his team created preliminary but nonetheless breathtaking false-color images of Pluto and its moon, Charon, showcasing variations in surface material and features of each object. Pluto, for instance, contains an abundance of methane ice but its appearance varies from the north ice cap to the Tombaugh Regio region (the light-colored, heart-shaped section).
Grundy said, “We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of incoming data, but we can already tell that Pluto and Charon are very complex worlds.” The veracity of this statement was confirmed the following day during a press conference that saw the New Horizons team reveal the first close-up image of Pluto and a detailed view of the entire surface of Charon.
Charon exhibited a six-mile-deep gash just visible on the moon’s limb and a spectacular series of canyons and cliffs spanning 600 miles. “Charon just blew our socks off,” said Deputy Project Scientist Cathy Olkin, who worked at Lowell Observatory years ago.
Pluto’s image was just as remarkable, revealing a startling range of mountains up to 11,000 feet in height. The presence of these mountains, which scientists suggest may be composed of water ice, along with an unexpected crater-free surface, has scientists scratching their heads and will certainly lead to new theories on the development and behavior of the Pluto system and icy worlds in general.
“All of us who have been studying Pluto for many years have seen it vary in a systematic way. For instance, the brightness changes as it rotates because different regions are coming into view. So we knew that Pluto’s surface was not homogeneous, that it was not a perfectly bland billiard ball. But I don’t think any of us in our wildest dreams imagined the diversity of terrains we’ve seen,” said Grundy.
Grundy spent a lot of time during fly-by week speaking with reporters from around the world, explaining mission activities and interpreting incoming data. While he will continue to handle interviews, he has since been able to turn most of his focus back to data analysis, the nuts and bolts of life as a scientist exploring other worlds. FBN
Grundy will be presenting “Pluto and Triton’s Exotic Ice” during the Flagstaff Festival of Science at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 24 at the Museum of Northern Arizona.
Photo captions:
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Will Grundy talks about Pluto’s surprisingly diverse terrain during a morning press briefing at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, on July 14. He calls the dwarf planet and its moon, Charon, “complex worlds.”
Photo by Kevin Schindler
Members of the media surround Will Grundy after he discusses Pluto’s ices during a morning press briefing at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, on July 14.
Photo by Kevin Schindler
During a July 15 press conference broadcast live on NASA TV, former Lowell Observatory astronomer John Spencer (far right) explains the nature of geological features on Pluto as current Lowell scientist Will Grundy (seated, third from left) listens.
Photo by Kevin Schindler
During a July 15 press conference broadcast live on NASA TV, Will Grundy (fourth from right and projected onto auditorium screen) shares new discoveries about the ices of Pluto.
Photo by Kevin Schindler
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