Pluto may be tiny, but it is a huge geologic mystery. The dwarf planet has completely stumped scientists with its ice mountains, slush-spewing volcanoes, sporadic patches of craters, and unusually smooth plains.
To better understand what's going on here, NASA just created a false color image of Pluto (above) using data that the New Horizons spacecraft collected when it flew past the dwarf planet in July.
The different colors represent the many types of surface textures and terrain that are present on the planet.
Compare the psychedelic-colored photo to a regular color image of Pluto, below. The features are much more difficult to discern:
Scientists used a technique called "principal component analysis" to create the false-color image. The contrast makes it easy to appreciate the complexity of this tiny world — although researchers are still working hard to understand what it all means.
New Horizons scientist Will Grundy presented the photo on November 9 at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting in Maryland.
Were expecting much more data from New Horizons over the next few months, and hopefully some of it will help scientists unravel the mysteries of Pluto.
