Mysterious Mountain On Pluto's Moon Has Scientists 'Stumped

A new close-up photo of Charon, one of Pluto'smoons, revealed a mysterious feature that has scientists puzzled.The image taken by the New Horizons spacecraftshows what appears to be a massive depression or pit with a mountain rising from its center.The most intriguing feature is a large mountain sitting in a moat, Jeff Moore of NASAs Ames Research Center, who leads New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team, said in a news release. This is a feature that has geologists stunned and stumped.On a surface that turned out to be a lot smoother than scientists expected, the feature stands out.It looks like somebody just dropped a giant boulder on Charon, New Horizons team member Bonnie Buratti of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory toldNational Geographic.The mountain-in-the-moat isn't the only surprise on Charon, the largest of Pluto's five moons."We originally thought Charon would be an ancient terrain covered in craters," New Horizons team member Cathy Olkin told the Los Angeles Times. "So when we saw the pictures this morning, it just blew our socks off."Fewer craters onboth Pluto and Charon suggest that the dwarf planet and its moon have younger surfaces than scientists expected.The new image was taken on Tuesday froma distance of about49,000 miles, shortly before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto. NASA said it expects to see a sharper version of the image when data from the New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager arrives.It's expected to take about 16 months for all the data to reach Earth. (function(){var src_url="https://spshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js'playList=518948076%2C518947217%2C518947134%2C518946788%2C518946793%2C518939720&height=381&width=570&sid=577&origin=SOLR&responsive=false&relatedMode=2&relatedBottomHeight=60&companionPos=&hasCompanion=false&autoStart=false&colorPallet=%23FFEB00&videoControlDisplayColor=%23191919&shuffle=0&isAP=1&pgType=cmsPlugin&pgTypeId=addToPost-top&onVideoDataLoaded=track5min.DL&onTimeUpdate=track5min.TC&onVideoDataLoaded=HPTrack.Vid.DL&onTimeUpdate=HPTrack.Vid.TC";if (typeof(commercial_video) == "object") {src_url += "&siteSection="+commercial_video.site_and_category;if (commercial_video.package) {src_url += "&sponsorship="+commercial_video.package;}}var script = document.createElement("script");script.src = src_url;script.async = true;var placeholder = document.querySelector(".js-fivemin-script");placeholder.parentElement.replaceChild(script, placeholder);})(); -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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