November 13, 2017 - Jagged Little Shore
Jagged Little Shore This enhanced color view from NASA’s New 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—is believed to get its dark red color from tholins, complex molecules found across Pluto. Krun Macula rises 2.5 km (1.5 mi) above the surrounding Sputnik Planum and is scarred by clusters of connected, roughly circular pits that typically reach between 8 and 13 km (5 and 8 mi) across, and up to 2.5 km (1.5 mi) deep. Scientists think these pits may have formed through surface collapse, although what prompted such collapses is a mystery.
Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute
Weekly Calendar
November 13-19, 2017
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 13
Venus 0.3° north of Jupiter
1971: Mariner 9 becomes first spacecraft to orbit Mars
1978: Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2) launched
Tuesday 14
Mars 3° south of Moon
1969: Apollo 12 launched, second lunar landing mission
2008: STS-126 Endeavour launched
2011: Soyuz TMA-22 launched carrying ISS Expedition 29/30 crew
Wednesday 15
1738: William Herschel born
1973: First powered flight of X-24B lifting body
1988: Green Bank 300-foot radio telescope collapses
1988: Soviet Shuttle Buran launched
Thursday 16
Vesta 0.4° north of Moon
Jupiter 4° south of Moon
1962: Saturn SA-3 launched
1973: Skylab 4 crew launched on 84-day mission
1974: Interstellar message broadcast from Arecibo radio telescope
2009: STS-129 Atlantis launched
Friday 17
Leonid meteor shower
1970: Luna 17 lands on Moon; Lunokhod 1 rover becomes first wheeled vehicle on Moon
2016: Soyuz MS-03 launched carrying ISS Expedition 50/51 crew
Saturday 18
New Moon 6:42 AM ET
Leonid meteor shower
1923: Alan Shepard born
1989: Cosmic Background Explorer launched
2013: MAVEN spacecraft launched to Mars
Sunday 19
1969: Apollo 12 makes second lunar landing
1996: STS-80 Columbia launched
1997: STS-87 Columbia launched
2005: Hayabusa spacecraft makes first liftoff from an asteroid