New map of Pluto reveals a ‘whale’ and a ‘donut’

[Judi Lynn]

New map of Pluto reveals a ‘whale’ and a ‘donut’
By Rachel Feltman July 8 at 9:48 AM

The New Horizons spacecraft is now officially en route to Pluto. Technically it's been en route for about nine years and several billion miles, but on Tuesday its team confirmed that the probe had entered its "encounter sequence" -- the set of commands that will carry it through its July 14 encounter with Pluto and the day or so afterwards.

This is where the real science starts.

On Tuesday, NASA released a new map of the dwarf planet. It shows the side of the planet we'll glimpse during July 14th's flyby, as photographed from June 27 to July 3 by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). Data from another instrument has been added to show the surface in true color.

Earlier color images showed dark spots -- very uniform in size and spacing -- along one side of Pluto's equator. The new map gives us a closer look: On the left, there's a dark splotch, informally known as "the whale," measuring some 1,860 miles long. It's one of the darkest things yet spotted on Pluto.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/08/new-map-of-pluto-reveals-a-whale-and-a-donut/

[Xipe Totec]

1. The bowl of petunias is missing. nt

[NeoGreen]

2. "Oh no, not again" (nt)

[lastlib]

3. Did the whale eat them?

[NeoGreen]

4. I think he is quoting...

...A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

(at least I was...)

The Book:
It is important to note that suddenly, and against all probability, a Sperm Whale (and a bowl of petunias) had been called into existence, several miles above the surface of an alien planet and since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity. This is what it thought, as it fell:

The Whale:
Ahhh! Woooh! What’s happening? Who am I? Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? Okay okay, calm down calm down get a grip now. Ooh, this is an interesting sensation. What is it? Its a sort of tingling in my… well I suppose I better start finding names for things. Lets call it a… tail! Yeah! Tail! And hey, what’s this roaring sound, whooshing past what I’m suddenly gonna call my head? Wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do. Yeah, this is really exciting. I’m dizzy with anticipation! Or is it the wind? There’s an awful lot of that now isn’t it? And what’s this thing coming toward me very fast? So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like ‘Ow’, ‘Ownge’, ‘Round’, ‘Ground’! That’s it! Ground! Ha! I wonder if it’ll be friends with me? Hello Ground!
(dies)

The Book:
Curiously the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias, as it fell, was, ‘Oh no, not again.’ Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly *why* the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.