{"id":1785996,"date":"2018-07-25T10:41:12","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T14:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1785996"},"modified":"2018-07-25T10:41:12","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T14:41:12","slug":"new-maps-of-pluto-and-charon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/new-maps-of-pluto-and-charon\/","title":{"rendered":"New Maps of Pluto and Charon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Tenzing Montes, Pluto. NASA\/JHUAPL\/SWRI\/LPI\/Paul Schenk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New global and topographic maps<\/a> of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, have been published. The Icarus<\/em> articles—this one for Pluto<\/a>, this one for Charon<\/a>—are behind a paywall, however, though I expect the maps themselves to be freely available at some point.<\/p>\n

To create the maps, New Horizons researchers, led by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) senior staff scientist, Paul Schenk, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, registered all the images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) systems together and assembled the mosaics. This labor-intensive effort required detailed alignment of surface features in overlapping images. Digital analysis of stereo images obtained by both cameras were used to create topographic maps for each region; these were then assembled into integrated topographic maps for each body. These new maps of Pluto and Charon were produced painstakingly over a two-year period as data were slowly transmitted to Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft. The quality of geographically and topographically accurate maps improved with each new batch of images that were returned to Earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One surprise revealed by the maps: both Pluto and Charon have a lot of elevation. For example: Pluto’s Tenzing Montes range (above) rises up to 6 km above the surrounding plain, and Charon has a topographic amplitude of 19 km (only Iapetus has more). That’s seriously craggy. Keep in mind that these are not large worlds: Pluto’s radius is 1,200 km, Charon’s 600 km. [Michele Bannister<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New global and topographic maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, have been published. The Icarus articles—this one for Pluto, this one for Charon—are behind a paywall, however, though I expect the maps themselves… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1246,126],"class_list":["post-1785996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-astronomy","tag-charon","tag-pluto","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1784927,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-for-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":1785996,"position":0},"title":"Planetary Maps for Children","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 February 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Planetary Maps for Children is a collection of pictorial maps of several moons and planets of the Solar System (so far: Venus, Mars, the Moon, Io, Europa, Titan, and Pluto and Charon), aimed at younger map readers.\u00a0The maps are vibrant and colourful, full of sight gags and \"fabulous make-believe creatures\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-children-pluto-charon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-children-pluto-charon.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-children-pluto-charon.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-children-pluto-charon.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-children-pluto-charon.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/planetary-maps-children-pluto-charon.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1816,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/05\/pluto-map-updated-with-earlier-lower-resolution-imagery\/","url_meta":{"origin":1785996,"position":1},"title":"Pluto Map Updated with Earlier, Lower-Resolution Imagery","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 May 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"An updated map of Pluto\u00a0now includes lower-resolution imagery from earlier in New Horizons' approach. \"The map includes all resolved images of Pluto\u2019s surface acquired between July 7-14, 2015, at pixel resolutions ranging from 18 miles (30 kilometers) on the Charon-facing hemisphere (left and right edges of the map) to 770\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pluto-global","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pluto-global-1024x405.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pluto-global-1024x405.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pluto-global-1024x405.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pluto-global-1024x405.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5997,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/07\/new-maps-of-ceres-and-pluto\/","url_meta":{"origin":1785996,"position":2},"title":"New Maps of Ceres and Pluto","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 July 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"As I predicted, a new global map of Pluto has been released that incorporates the imagery that has been downlinked so far from the New Horizons flyby: with gridlines, without gridlines. If nothing else, the equatorial projection demonstrates how much of Pluto's surface was not seen during the very brief\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/pluto-before-and-after\/","url_meta":{"origin":1785996,"position":3},"title":"Pluto Before and After","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"[sciba leftsrc=\"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/pluto-pre-nh.jpg\" leftlabel=\"Pre-Flyby\" rightsrc=\"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/pluto-post-nh.jpg\" rightlabel=\"New Horizons\" mode=\"horizontal\" width=\"\"] Compare pre-flyby and post-flyby maps of Pluto\u00a0and you'll get a sense of just how much our understanding of that dwarf planet's terrain improved last year. The pre-flyby map was derived from Hubble observations, the post-flyby\u00a0map\u00a0from\u00a0imagery collected from\u00a0the New Horizons spacecraft (obviously). Image\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5993,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/07\/the-best-map-of-pluto-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":1785996,"position":4},"title":"The Best Map of Pluto Ever (Until Some Time Later This Month)","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 July 2015","format":"image","excerpt":"The New Horizons spacecraft's rendezvous with Pluto is next week, folks, but we're already getting better views of our favourite dwarf planet than we've ever had before. NASA has assembled images taken between June 27 and July 3 into the above map, which despite its relatively low resolution shows some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"New Horizons Map of Pluto","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/pluto-map.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/pluto-map.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/pluto-map.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/pluto-map.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5215,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/moons-and-planets-added-to-google-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1785996,"position":5},"title":"Moons and Planets added to Google Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"The Moon and Mars were relatively early additions to Google Earth; that application may have been migrated to the web, but the planets and moons keep coming. Yesterday Google announced the addition of a dozen other worlds in our solar system; the space layer of Google Maps now includes planets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astronomy"","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/astronomy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/google-maps-planets-1024x601.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/google-maps-planets-1024x601.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/google-maps-planets-1024x601.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/google-maps-planets-1024x601.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1785996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785999,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785996\/revisions\/1785999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1785996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1785996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1785996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}