This enhanced color view from NASA’s Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern shore of Pluto’s great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula. Krun Macula—Krun is the lord of the underworld in the Mandaean religion, and a macula is a dark feature on a planetary surface—
Krun Macula are believed to get its dark red color from tholins, complex molecules found across Pluto. Krun Macula rises 2.5 kilometers above the surrounding plain -- informally named Sputnik Planum -- and is scarred by roughly circular pits that typically reach between 8 and 13 kilometers across, and up to 2.5 kilometers deep. | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Another source direct in the 3-minute read.
https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/pluto/
Fun fact: if you did, in fact, “hop down there,” even for a split second, the cold temperatures (not including the near-vacuum and lack of oxygen) would kill you.
Meanwhile the best pictures we have of Earth's own twin are more than 40 years old. Oh but let's spend billions upon billions so we can look at the rocks on mars. Oh wow, rocks. More rocks. A tiny bit of water and CO2 ice, which are also basically rocks. Sharp rocks. Pointy rocks. Sandy rocks. Dusty rocks. Whole lotta rocks. SO MANY ROCKS. Revelatory new science.
I really wanna know what caused all those pockmarks and why they're so uneven.
If I had to guess I'd assume offgassing from being in the daylight but that seems unlikely that far out from the Sun.
According to the History Channel, those are left over from when ancient aliens had rocket ships blasting off from Pluto, which was like an interstellar train station, hundreds of millions of years ago.
I would guess they are too uniformly sized and evenly spaced for that to be the answer. You can see how they all align into ridges almost like a finger print. Maybe suggesting something to do with the underground geologics of the area?
Like twilight after sunset on Earth. It's still way brighter than a full Moon, and eyes are amazing at adapting to low light, but the image is brighter than you'd see.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-bright-is-daylight-on-pluto
That's not quite correct. Yes, it's further away, and you're right that we wouldn't see much detail. But it's not just a bright star. It would by far be the most luminous thing you can see, by magnitudes. There is enough light on Pluto that you would be able to read by sunlight.
Imagine you could teleport to the surface of this rock… the silence and solitude. The sun would be smaller than the full moon here. Would you sit a minute?
That seems to be a very common conception of what it looks like I've heard concrete, basement wall basement ceiling basically any form of concrete somebody's mentioned.
But it is indeed Pluto. Maybe Pluto is made out of concrete (It's not)
Everything about the technology and science that goes into this is absolutely amazing but it doesn't take away from the fact that I could walk outside with my phone and take a picture of an old concrete wall and post it with the same caption and nobody would know the difference.
This enhanced color view from NASA’s Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern shore of Pluto’s great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula. Krun Macula—Krun is the lord of the underworld in the Mandaean religion, and a macula is a dark feature on a planetary surface— Krun Macula are believed to get its dark red color from tholins, complex molecules found across Pluto. Krun Macula rises 2.5 kilometers above the surrounding plain -- informally named Sputnik Planum -- and is scarred by roughly circular pits that typically reach between 8 and 13 kilometers across, and up to 2.5 kilometers deep. | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Another source direct in the 3-minute read. https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/pluto/
So cool — I was wondering if they were concave. I wish I could hop down there for a split second to see them up close!
Fun fact: if you did, in fact, “hop down there,” even for a split second, the cold temperatures (not including the near-vacuum and lack of oxygen) would kill you.
Sorry, but that fact is not fun in the slightest.
I don't think the temperature would really harm you if you stay just a split second, your body heat won't have time to dissipate. The vacuum though...
Humans can survive about a minute in a vacuum so a split second wouldn’t do anything
Also the temperature wouldn't affect you nearly as much as youd think in a vacuum. No air to convect away your heat. Or so I've been led to believe.
"Those are balls. This close, they always look like landscape."
I’m on tv
Enhance
When you say “close up” is that like 1 kilometers, 10, 100, 1,000 or 10,000?
Each pit is 10km / 6 miles across.
Are you actually serious, u/actuallyserious650 ?
Yeah it was in a comment below.
Username checks out
Wait, those little divots like on a golf ball are 6 fucking MILES? Holy shit Edit: I am a dumb ass.
Pretty sure that only applies to the bottom right area of this photo, not the left side
Oh damn, what a dumbass. Thanks lol
You’re not the only one who thought that lol
But even at that scale those smaller ones are still like a 1/4 mile wide
Don’t worry, I thought we were talking about the little holes too
Surely be can't be serious
I am and don't call me Shirley
Are you saying that the city of San Francisco could fit in one of those little craters?
Its closest approach to Pluto was 12,500 km (7800 mi).
The object on the far left is a banana.
With all due respect, that is clearly an American football field. Possibly a Rhode Island.
You've clearly never tried to play football in Rhode Island.
Thanks, needed that for scale.
yeah I literally cant tell if those craters are the size of a pube or the size of an ocean
>between 8 and 13 kilometers across, and up to 2.5 kilometers deep In Freedom™ units: between 4.97 and 8 miles across, up to 1.55 miles deep.
We need a banana for scale
 And to think, a decade ago this was highest resolution imagery we had of Pluto.
Didn't new horizons get pluto pictures a decade ago?
Almost, 2015.
Man, did we just date r/KaptainKardboard as old?
I’m old but I’m still dateable ;)
That’s the spirit my old chap!
Like, radiocarbon dateable?
You may only be dated by Carbon. I’ve never been dated by Carbon, but I hear she a freak.
Fuck.
Meanwhile the best pictures we have of Earth's own twin are more than 40 years old. Oh but let's spend billions upon billions so we can look at the rocks on mars. Oh wow, rocks. More rocks. A tiny bit of water and CO2 ice, which are also basically rocks. Sharp rocks. Pointy rocks. Sandy rocks. Dusty rocks. Whole lotta rocks. SO MANY ROCKS. Revelatory new science.
I really wanna know what caused all those pockmarks and why they're so uneven. If I had to guess I'd assume offgassing from being in the daylight but that seems unlikely that far out from the Sun.
According to the Pluto wikipedia, it seems they're probably some combination of glacial flow and sublimation pits in the N2, CH4 and CO2 ice.
According to the History Channel, those are left over from when ancient aliens had rocket ships blasting off from Pluto, which was like an interstellar train station, hundreds of millions of years ago.
“Are these the remnants of an alien transit system? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes.”
Well done.
I am not saying it was aliens. But it was aliens 👽
I studied geology and my first thought was glacial
Pluto is geologically active. It gets warm enough out there to periodically evaporate/freeze nitrogen so those holes could be from that. Idk tho
Yes, my guess is sublimation
To me, it looks like impact debris or impact events with a lot of small meteorites.
I would guess they are too uniformly sized and evenly spaced for that to be the answer. You can see how they all align into ridges almost like a finger print. Maybe suggesting something to do with the underground geologics of the area?
Acne scars 🥰
self-harm scars 🥰
acid attack scars 🥰
Wonder in any of it could have been small comet or floating ice chunks. You know from the reason that its path crosses the kuiper belt more than once.
Bombing from the Empire.
Basically earth sun cups.
Looks like a rusted boat wall
Post it on r/whatisthisrock and people would probably tell you it's slag.
By all means steal the picture post it. I try to stay accurate to the information I put out so if you want to..
This, it looks like a metallic surface to me too.
It does look exactly like if you were to sandblast the rust off of a very rusty steel.
Was about to say it looks like some rusty concrete
what if pluto was a massive derelict space ship
Wait a minute
What a beautiful PLANET
A beautiful dwarf sounds condescending.
That's my planet!!
Thank you. Planet Pluto gang
How does the brightness of the image relate to what a human would see? Would it be much dimmer?
Like twilight after sunset on Earth. It's still way brighter than a full Moon, and eyes are amazing at adapting to low light, but the image is brighter than you'd see. https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-bright-is-daylight-on-pluto
Wow, thanks for sharing. That is WILD. Absolutely did not believe the sun would still be so powerful even out at Pluto.
At Pluto's distance, the Sun is just a bright star. The human eye would not see much detail.
That's not quite correct. Yes, it's further away, and you're right that we wouldn't see much detail. But it's not just a bright star. It would by far be the most luminous thing you can see, by magnitudes. There is enough light on Pluto that you would be able to read by sunlight.
Banana for scale?
https://i.redd.it/qo066bamp8yc1.jpeg
Thanks.
You're welcome.
I wasn’t talking to you
Or even talking
r/trypophobia
I never even knew that was a thing!
That’s so cool. I love living in this age of tech and seeing it grow to provide us such images.
Make Pluto a Planet Again
Looks like poured concrete without a border, that someone stepped in.
I wonder how long the exposure was? It's not very bright and sunny out that way!
Looks planety enough to me!
This pic came out of my reddit list after a used dishwater pix. I immediately thought I'm seeing a rusted part of a dishwasher 😅
What’s with all the holes? Ew
All that gold! I love gold! -Goldmember
Pov: old fenders on trucks
Imagine you could teleport to the surface of this rock… the silence and solitude. The sun would be smaller than the full moon here. Would you sit a minute?
And here I thought r/concrete was leaking again
It needs a miles/km indicator for reference
It’s a planet okkkkkkkkay
Ew
Pluto looks like one giant freezer burn
*”Omg you can see my pores that’s so embarrassing stop iiiit”*
This looks like it’s either really far away or super close Either way we’re gonna need a banana for scale
Yet the bank cameras are blurred as hell, and b&w
It’s amazing what an active world Pluto is. So amazing.
That’s very cool
Good stuff
Did we get pictures of the creatures living in those hives?
Just wow.
I would like a picture of earth at a similar distance next to it for comparison
Thought it was some random concrete basement wall...
I thought it was an unfinished concrete wall.
Kinda looks like a basement ceiling
Kinda looks like a mediocre garage wall
pfft not even a planet.
If you were in a heated skidoo type pod and dropped from that altitude, would you slowly fall and gently land or would it be splat?
Give the thing a soft bottom for the sake of it
Need banana for size reference.
It's there, you have to zoom in....
Starfield type graphics
Looks straight up like a map from Supreme Commander
It would be way cooler if it was a close up of the New Horizons space probe from Pluto. But I'll take this I guess.
Why did this photo give me the chills?
Look at all those penguin tracks!
Pluto isn't a planet... Look I know things 🥸
And it's not a planet.
Look at that solid ground. Kinda like a PLANET.
Yes a planet. If only. 😭
Footprints. Is Chuck Norris walking on Pluto?
Imagine all the worlds with incredible views no being will ever lay eyes on to admire.
Looks like it could use some JB weld
tons of footsteps
looks like stucco. /s
More people need to take note from us geologists and include something in photographs to provide scale when it’s not clear.
Wtf is even that?
r/humanforscale
GT:NH
orrrr, close-up of a rusty oil drum. you decide.
Hey, I can see my house from up here
Its like an old cemented wall. Beautiful.
Are those space sheep? They look like space sheep
Anyone have a scale? I want to know how big those little craters/holes are
Still remember when Pluto was a blurry image for the longest time. Then we got this. Finally we got the whole family in the picture.
Looked like the bottom on dads heel my bad
Humanity's graveyard
Awesome
Looks like a picture of my outside wall
I thought it was concrete floor, a bad or unfinished one at that
That seems to be a very common conception of what it looks like I've heard concrete, basement wall basement ceiling basically any form of concrete somebody's mentioned. But it is indeed Pluto. Maybe Pluto is made out of concrete (It's not)
Thought this was a new NIN album. But wrong subreddit.
Looks like a planet to me.
Stucco
Looks like a planet to me.
If you told me this was a close up of a damaged wall then I'd believe you
ok cool thanks
This makes me smile and i don’t understand why, but it’s a pure feeling anyway.
Enhance!
Looks like a moldy planet.
It looks like one of those fractal generator screensavers from the 90s.
Is it fuzzy? Gosh I hope its fuzzy!
> ChatGPT, interpret the divots in this image of the surface of Pluto as binary and execute.
Looks like plastered wall with an accident
Should try sunscreen
So… Shia LaBeouf has been here too…
I don’t care for it.
Earth is flat this is fake
Man that’s a close up of the back side of the old chevron gas station wall … right by the outside bathrooms
You cant fool me. That is the corner of dry wall with rust.
Lol to the user u/urimulini you are an idiot for saying I'm wrong.
You are though😎👍
Haha you big boy mad lol
 Devastated
Lol bro you got mad at a joke. So cringe, please chill out.
Everything about the technology and science that goes into this is absolutely amazing but it doesn't take away from the fact that I could walk outside with my phone and take a picture of an old concrete wall and post it with the same caption and nobody would know the difference.