The Pluto Pipeline Resumes

Images and Data Come Tumbling in from the Kuiper Belt

What to make of this distant planet, Pluto?

It was, for so many years, an afterthought in the solar system — not very well respected, probably because it was so far away. Too dim to see. Discovered by an American who didn’t even have a Ph.D. when he found it. How could something so small and insignificant be very important? Not that long ago (in the late 20th century), people really didn’t take it that seriously. Not until the first glimmerings of a mission to this distant world began to take shape.

Now, New Horizons has done her job. In a few short hours in July, it captured the images and data it’s now sending back to the science teams. The latest ones started flowing in over Labor Day weekend, and we’re starting to see them — along with scientist commentaries — on the mission Web sites. We’re finding out what a weird and different place Pluto is. Nope, it’s not a “dreg” of the solar system, anymore. It could well be the key to understanding not just all the objects “out there”, but also unlocking some secrets of solar system formation that only Pluto can tell.

That’s the way science works. There’s always a hidden secret that gets revealed, something that scientists might have overlooked or been distracted from by other, more dazzling finds. The devil, as we so often like to say, is in the details.

And, wow — are there details in those views! Mountains, cracked surfaces, possible dunes, tholin-covered ices, and much more. As Alan Stern said in today’s press release, “If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there.”

So, now the job of explaining how it all got there begins. Mountains rising up out of the icy surface, possibly triggering nitrogen ice flows. What look like possible “glacier cut” valleys across the plains — what’s causing that action? What interior process could be at work in such a cold place? And, how can all this happen on a world where the atmosphere is escaping so rapidly?

Pluto is giving us WAY more than we bargained for. Today’s headline is correct: it’s complicated. And that’s the best kind of science I know of. It stimulates the wit and intellect, and keeps everybody on their toes.

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