{"id":19506,"date":"2016-01-08T21:40:52","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T13:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/new-horizons-team-shares-new-x-files-from-pluto\/"},"modified":"2016-01-08T21:40:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T13:40:52","slug":"new-horizons-team-shares-new-x-files-from-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/new-horizons-team-shares-new-x-files-from-pluto\/","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons team shares new X-Files from Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sputnik
This image from NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft shows patterns in the nitrogen glaciers of an area informally named Sputnik Planum \u2013 including an X shape just to the right and below the image\u2019s center. The darker patch at the center of the image is probably a dirty block of water ice \u201cfloating\u201d in the denser solid nitrogen. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If \u201cX-Files\u201d are defined as data about weird and alien phenomena, NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission to Pluto has X-Files galore. And this week, the mission\u2019s science team shared an X-File with an actual X on it.<\/p>\n

The timing of Thursday\u2019s image release couldn\u2019t be much better, coming just a couple of weeks before \u201cThe X-Files\u201d (the TV show, that is) returns to Fox for a six-episode run. But this is no publicity stunt; rather, it illustrates how weird geology can get on a world that features glaciers of frozen nitrogen.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

The semi-solid nitrogen in a region informally known as Sputnik Planum slowly burbles up and down, due to thermal convection. When blobs of nitrogen rise up and press against each other, patterns of lines mark the boundaries between the blobs. When the blobs subside, the lines disappear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis part of Pluto is acting like a lava lamp, if you can imagine a lava lamp as wide as, and even deeper than, the Hudson Bay,\u201d William McKinnon, a researcher from Washington University in St. Louis who\u2019s the deputy lead of the New Horizons geology, geophysics and imaging team, said in a NASA feature.<\/p>\n

The results can be seen in a mosaic of Sputnik Planum imagery. The pictures were captured during New Horizons\u2019 flyby last July and sent back to Earth on Christmas Eve. A detail from the mosaic shows an X shape floating all by itself. Scientists say the X marks a spot where four blobs, or \u201ccells,\u201d came together a long time ago. Eventually, the blobs smoothed out, and the boundaries between them faded away \u2013 except at the X-shaped nexus.<\/p>\n

Another weird feature can be seen above the X: That dark squiggly is thought to be a block of dirty water ice, floating on top of the denser, cleaner nitrogen ice. The speckles that cover the picture are pits in the glacier, probably caused by nitrogen\u2019s sublimation into gas.<\/p>\n

\"Color
Scientists from NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission have combined data from two instruments to create this composite image of Pluto\u2019s Viking Terra area. The light features consist of methane ice, while the brownish features are deposits of organic materials called tholins. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So what\u2019s Pluto\u2019s \u201cdirt\u201d made of? The dwarf planet\u2019s dark materials appear to include organic compounds known as tholins, which are formed when the sun\u2019s ultraviolet radiation degrades hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. A color composite image released on Thursday shows brownish deposits of tholins at the bottom of craters in a region informally known as Viking Terra. This view combines high-resolution black-and-white data from New Horizons\u2019 LORRI camera with lower-resolution color data from the Ralph\/MVIC imager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn areas where the reddish material is thickest and the surface appears smooth, the material seems to have flowed into some channels and craters,\u201d NASA said. \u201cScientists say tholin deposits of that thickness aren\u2019t usually mobile on large scales, suggesting that they might be riding along with ice flowing underneath, or being blown around by Pluto\u2019s winds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winds on Pluto? What could be weirder than that? Here\u2019s what: This raw image shows strange circular artifacts of scattered sunlight, shining through layers of haze in Pluto\u2019s thin atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"Scattered
A raw image from NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe shows weird-shaped artifacts created by sunlight shining through the edge of Pluto\u2019s layered atmosphere. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n