Hubble image archive
Hubble Maps Pluto's Changing Surface
These are two Hubble photo maps of the dwarf planet Pluto, as seen in 1994 and 2002-2003. Hubble's view isn't sharp enough to see craters or mountains, if they exist on the surface, but Hubble does reveal a complex-looking and variegated world with white and charcoal-black terrai...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2010
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2010-06-2687-image
These are two Hubble photo maps of the dwarf planet Pluto, as seen in 1994 and 2002-2003. Hubble's view isn't sharp enough to see craters or mountains, if they exist on the surface, but Hubble does reveal a complex-looking and variegated world with white and charcoal-black terrain. The white areas are surface frost, and the dark areas are a carbon-rich residue caused by sunlight breaking up methane that is present on Pluto's surface.
A comparison of the maps shows that Pluto's brightness has changed between 1994 and 2003. The northern pole is brighter and the southern hemisphere is darker. Summer is approaching Pluto's north pole, and this may cause surface ices to melt and refreeze in the colder shadowed portion of the planet.
The Hubble pictures underscore that Pluto is not simply a ball of ice and rock but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes. These atmospheric changes are driven by seasonal changes that are as much propelled by the planet's 248-year elliptical orbit as its axial tilt, unlike Earth where the tilt alone drives seasons.
The top picture was taken in 1994 by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. The bottom image was taken in 2002-2003 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The dark band at the bottom of each map is the region that was hidden from view at the time the data were taken.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Pluto |
| Object Description | Dwarf Planet |
| Distance | Pluto is on an eccentric orbit that varies between 29.6 AU and 49.3 AU from the Sun. The average distance during the time of these observations was 30.6 AU (Jan. 2003). In 2010, Pluto is 31.8 AU from the Sun and moving away. It will reach its furthest distance from the Sun in 2130. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposals : A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute), L. Trafton (University of Texas, Austin), and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute); and : M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), W. Grundy (Lowell Observatory), and E. Young, L. Young, and A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute). The science team comprises: M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), W. Grundy (Lowell Observatory), and E. Young, L. Young, and A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute). |
| Instrument | HST>FOC and HST>ACS/HRC |
| Exposure Dates | June 2002 - June 2003 (ACS), and June 1994 (FOC) |
| Filters | FOC: F278M (278nm) and F410M (410nm) ACS: F435W (B) and F555W (V) |
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov