The New Horizons spacecraft has sent pictures showing strange objects on the surface of this dwarf planet.
MVIC shoots at poorer resolution than LORRI. Therefore, despite the shorter distance, the detail of her images was 650 meters per pixel, while LORRI's - 480 meters per pixel. But the MVIC data allowed us to colorize the mosaic.
It features bright methane ice covering the edges of many craters. You can also see dark red tolions - organic particles formed in Pluto's atmosphere from methane and nitrogen under the influence of sunlight. Their clusters are mainly concentrated on the bottom of craters, as well as faults. Scientists believe that tolions "flow" inward when the surface ice moves, or are carried by the wind. Despite the extremely rarefied atmosphere, winds blow at Pluto's surface with a speed of several meters per second.
A new mosaic of the Sputnik Plain has also been published. It is made up of images taken from a distance of 17 thousand kilometers, their resolution is 77 - 85 meters per pixel. The captured strip is 700 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide.
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If you look closely, you can see an X on one of the surface areas. Scientists believe that the Sputnik Plain may be something like a giant lava lamp. The warmer nitrogen located below the surface breaks out from time to time, forming the characteristic plates that cover the Sputnik plain. Over time, these slabs sink beneath the surface and the cycle repeats again. It is possible that X is the intersection of four no longer existing plates.
Among the published photographs is "Viking Land". The scientific team of New Horizons combined in one mosaic the footage of the Viking land taken by the LORRI camera from a distance of 49 thousand kilometers and the MVIC camera photo taken from a distance of 34 thousand kilometers.