The New Horizons probe had to pass on the Earth 1st edition geological maps of Pluto and its satellite Charon. How to convince NASA that they surprised the pictures, which got to the transition of the spacecraft into "radio silence".
"These photos show that Pluto and Charon are actually extremely sophisticated worlds. On the surface a lot of fun. Our team is making a great effort to ensure that in the shortest time to find the chemical composition of different regions of Pluto and understand how they appeared," said managing geological team New Horizons William Grundy.
Obtained of Pluto and Charon geological chart, despite its relatively low resolution, has managed to access some fascinating facts from the life of the dwarf planet and its satellite. For example, cyclopean bright "heart" at the equator of Pluto, which recently shocked NASA, as it turned out, consists of 2 halves with different chemical and mineral composition.
As for Charon, his black hat ice at the North pole, according to experts, consists of hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds and unusual "striped" regions in the Equatorial regions of the satellite is composed of a complex mixture of minerals. According to NASA scientists, Charon is equally fascinating from the point of view of Geology than Pluto itself, especially given the fact that he is "the moon", not a true dwarf planet.
Nine years and 4.6 billion miles of loneliness in space, to see Pluto at a glance. This is the task of the American space probe New Horizons that 14 July was unprecedented closeup of the dwarf planet around 12.5 thousand kilometers. Pictures of the station began to send to the planet Earth on approach to Pluto. The NASA researchers first received detailed image of the object and its numerous retinue.
After convergence with Pluto, New Horizons will continue its way deep into the Kuiper belt. There are thousands of objects - frozen prompts the question of how the Solar system was formed.
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