Pluto never ceases to amaze, as more high resolution images have been sent back to Earth by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. The recent batch of photographs shows a closer look at the dwarf planet's surface, and they are defying explanation.
Of particular interest is a photograph of Pluto's terminator, which is the area that constitute the line that divides the planet's night and daytime surfaces. It reveals an eerie landscape dominated by regular ripples that is not unlike dragon scales or patterns on a snake's skin. Like the previous land formations that have been beamed back from the Kuiper belt, this alien surface has also left scientists clueless.
"It's a unique and perplexing landscape stretching over hundreds of miles," said William McKinnon, deputy lead at New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team, Discovery News reported. "It looks more like tree bark or dragon scales than geology. This'll really take time to figure out; maybe it's some combination of internal tectonic forces and ice sublimation driven by Pluto's faint sunlight."
To appreciate the bizaare pattern that is now being furiously analyzed at NASA, you can zoom in the high resolution image in this link.
The other mind blowing takeaway in the latest photos released by NASA includes the incredible colored photograph of Pluto that is created with a combination of blue, red and infrared images, according to Engadget. The image, which is shown below, highlights the diverse landforms and complex geology of the dwarf planet. Space enthusiasts were treated earlier to a first-ever aerial video tour of Pluto, as previously reported by HNGN.
