January 25, 2017
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Friday, April 15, 2016 The 85th Joseph Henry Lecture
In this video at the 1 hr, 10 min 20 sec mark Alan Stern is explaining NASA's cold trap theory about how tholin was placed on Charon. He makes an interesting statement about their cold trap theory at 1hr, 10m, 40s. Alan says, "We are going to be able to test this [theory] but not until about the year 2050, or if we send a spacecraft there sooner that can work in low light levels" suggesting New Horizons wasn't capable of detecting tholins at the south pole light levels. |
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On September 14, 2016 (4 months ago and 5 months after Alan's video lecture) NASA claimed they figured out how Charon got it's North pole "painted red". According to them, Pluto's atmosphere deposited methane snow on the poles of Charon painting them red.
Five months after Alan Stern indicates there was no data collected by New Horizons that could be used to confirm the presence of tholin on the south pole, an article is released claiming Pluto-shine reveals tholin on the south pole.
Quotes
Charon’s polar coloring comes from Pluto itself....Pluto is a graffiti artist, spray-painting its companion....after analyzing the images and other data....team dug into the data ...The models using Pluto and Charon’s 248-year orbit....The models also suggested....
Sunlight further irradiates those leftovers into reddish material – called tholins – that has slowly accumulated on Charon’s poles over millions of years. New Horizons’ observations of Charon’s other pole, currently in winter darkness – and seen by New Horizons only by light reflecting from Pluto, or “Pluto-shine” – confirmed that the same activity was occurring at both poles....
"This study solves one of the greatest mysteries we found on Charon"
End Quote
Here's the thing, NASA scientists, had already decided Pluto's atmosphere was being cold trapped on Charon a year prior to the release of this "report". A year prior, on September 9, 2015 (two months after the flyby) NASA had decided the tholin on Charon at Mordor was from a process called "cold trapping" so this study is not NASA figuring out what painted Charon's North Pole as much as it's NASA finally figuring out a way to support their previous assumptions about how the tholin got on Charon at Mordor via math formula's and models while claiming "New Horizons" saw this phenomenon (not a scientist) on Charon's south pole via "Pluto shine"
Unfortunately for me I am blinded by what is staring me right in the face and that is that Mordor is an impact site. There is a splatter pattern along with raised ridges with compression rings lining the interior of the raised ridge lines, there is an inner impact ridge in an egg shaped oval circle as well as an outer ridge. The ejecta spreads along a line outward from the diagonally lined impact zone and directly in line with the egg shaped inner ridge structure.
Four months ago NASA reported (inferred and suggested heavily (by pointing the finger at "New Horizons")) how they had seen the tholin on the south pole via Pluto shine in images and this confirms their previous assumption from a year prior about how the tholin got on Charon. Now they are focusing their comments more toward math and formulas which prove the atmosphere of Pluto could be painting Charon at both poles.
If there is in fact tholin on the south pole of Charon, this then goes a long way towards supporting their previous cold trapping assumption. So on Page 47 I wrote an ode to NASA asking them to show this evidence of Charon's south pole lit by Pluto shine displaying its tholin. It seemed to me if there was conclusive visual evidence of tholin on the south pole of Charon in the form of an image created by reflected light from Pluto why wouldn't that be the first thing NASA revealed?
At the time NASA released the cleverly crafted words which seem to specifically indicate "New Horizons" data and images confirms through Pluto shine the presence of tholin on the south pole, did they release the image(s) as supportive evidence of their claims? No, instead NASA showed the same image of Charon that's been circulated for more than a year.
Which was this image.
Five months after Alan Stern indicates there was no data collected by New Horizons that could be used to confirm the presence of tholin on the south pole, an article is released claiming Pluto-shine reveals tholin on the south pole.
Quotes
Charon’s polar coloring comes from Pluto itself....Pluto is a graffiti artist, spray-painting its companion....after analyzing the images and other data....team dug into the data ...The models using Pluto and Charon’s 248-year orbit....The models also suggested....
Sunlight further irradiates those leftovers into reddish material – called tholins – that has slowly accumulated on Charon’s poles over millions of years. New Horizons’ observations of Charon’s other pole, currently in winter darkness – and seen by New Horizons only by light reflecting from Pluto, or “Pluto-shine” – confirmed that the same activity was occurring at both poles....
"This study solves one of the greatest mysteries we found on Charon"
End Quote
Here's the thing, NASA scientists, had already decided Pluto's atmosphere was being cold trapped on Charon a year prior to the release of this "report". A year prior, on September 9, 2015 (two months after the flyby) NASA had decided the tholin on Charon at Mordor was from a process called "cold trapping" so this study is not NASA figuring out what painted Charon's North Pole as much as it's NASA finally figuring out a way to support their previous assumptions about how the tholin got on Charon at Mordor via math formula's and models while claiming "New Horizons" saw this phenomenon (not a scientist) on Charon's south pole via "Pluto shine"
Unfortunately for me I am blinded by what is staring me right in the face and that is that Mordor is an impact site. There is a splatter pattern along with raised ridges with compression rings lining the interior of the raised ridge lines, there is an inner impact ridge in an egg shaped oval circle as well as an outer ridge. The ejecta spreads along a line outward from the diagonally lined impact zone and directly in line with the egg shaped inner ridge structure.
Four months ago NASA reported (inferred and suggested heavily (by pointing the finger at "New Horizons")) how they had seen the tholin on the south pole via Pluto shine in images and this confirms their previous assumption from a year prior about how the tholin got on Charon. Now they are focusing their comments more toward math and formulas which prove the atmosphere of Pluto could be painting Charon at both poles.
If there is in fact tholin on the south pole of Charon, this then goes a long way towards supporting their previous cold trapping assumption. So on Page 47 I wrote an ode to NASA asking them to show this evidence of Charon's south pole lit by Pluto shine displaying its tholin. It seemed to me if there was conclusive visual evidence of tholin on the south pole of Charon in the form of an image created by reflected light from Pluto why wouldn't that be the first thing NASA revealed?
At the time NASA released the cleverly crafted words which seem to specifically indicate "New Horizons" data and images confirms through Pluto shine the presence of tholin on the south pole, did they release the image(s) as supportive evidence of their claims? No, instead NASA showed the same image of Charon that's been circulated for more than a year.
Which was this image.
When I finally saw headlines four months later (January 19th, 2017) that NASA had released an image of Pluto shine lighting up Charon, I was excited to see this evidence of theirs, this proof of red tholin on Charon's south pole, so I rushed to NASA's web site and this is what I found.
Charon image lit by Pluto shine Jan 19, 2017. South pole in this image is around the 8 O-Clock position.
My first thought was
WHAT? Are you kidding me? Surely this can't be the Pluto shine image.
So I read their article accompanying this image and I began to understand the shell game that was taking place.
This is what the article said. most importantly, this is the only thing the article said.
Full article quote
This image obtained with the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the night side of Pluto’s large, Texas-sized moon Charon, against a star field, lit by faint, reflected light from Pluto itself. The bright crescent on Charon's right side is a sliver of sunlit terrain; it is overexposed. New Horizons was already about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) beyond Pluto when the image was taken on July 15, 2015.
End quote
Absolutely no mention of tholin on the south pole of Charon, no mention of this proving their cold trapping theory, no mention of Pluto's atmosphere snowing down methane on Charon, no indication Pluto was spray painting graffiti onto Charon's poles, just a grainy old black and white distorted heavily pixelated image. I then realized why they waited four months to release this year old image so as to separate it from their previous statement where they claimed to have seen (or more specifically "New Horizons" saw) tholin on the south pole of Charon from Pluto shine.
WHAT? Are you kidding me? Surely this can't be the Pluto shine image.
So I read their article accompanying this image and I began to understand the shell game that was taking place.
This is what the article said. most importantly, this is the only thing the article said.
Full article quote
This image obtained with the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the night side of Pluto’s large, Texas-sized moon Charon, against a star field, lit by faint, reflected light from Pluto itself. The bright crescent on Charon's right side is a sliver of sunlit terrain; it is overexposed. New Horizons was already about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) beyond Pluto when the image was taken on July 15, 2015.
End quote
Absolutely no mention of tholin on the south pole of Charon, no mention of this proving their cold trapping theory, no mention of Pluto's atmosphere snowing down methane on Charon, no indication Pluto was spray painting graffiti onto Charon's poles, just a grainy old black and white distorted heavily pixelated image. I then realized why they waited four months to release this year old image so as to separate it from their previous statement where they claimed to have seen (or more specifically "New Horizons" saw) tholin on the south pole of Charon from Pluto shine.
Charon image lit by Pluto shine Jan 29, 2016. South pole in this image is around the 12 O-Clock position.
This second image of Charon in Pluto shine was released one year prior to the image above. It also appears two stars are missing from this image or were added to the upper image. The first more grainy image was released a year after the second more fuzzy image.
You can't possibly see any south pole tholin in this image so it makes sense that they wouldn't reveal it at the same time they claim it proves you can see tholin on the south pole, readers would laugh it off as ludicrous and that would immediately expose them for being a bit dubious, wouldn't it? There was little to no fanfare when the fuzzy image was released a year prior but then 8 months after its release they reported proving the cold trap theory on Charon via Pluto shine and then 4 months later the upper grainy image was released.
They make a press release statement about a discovery of tholin on the south pole via Pluto shine while revealing a clean image without showing the south pole then four months later release the real Pluto shine image which is a year old image but don't say anything about the south pole tholin as proof of the previous assumption. This way journalist will report two separate things not overlapping or exposing the slight of hand movement. In one case journalists report evidence of tholin on south pole is proven by NASA via Pluto shine. Four months later, journalists report on Pluto shine image without any comments related to proof of tholin on south pole. Convenient timing and precision of information release.
Is this how science works now?
You can't possibly see any south pole tholin in this image so it makes sense that they wouldn't reveal it at the same time they claim it proves you can see tholin on the south pole, readers would laugh it off as ludicrous and that would immediately expose them for being a bit dubious, wouldn't it? There was little to no fanfare when the fuzzy image was released a year prior but then 8 months after its release they reported proving the cold trap theory on Charon via Pluto shine and then 4 months later the upper grainy image was released.
They make a press release statement about a discovery of tholin on the south pole via Pluto shine while revealing a clean image without showing the south pole then four months later release the real Pluto shine image which is a year old image but don't say anything about the south pole tholin as proof of the previous assumption. This way journalist will report two separate things not overlapping or exposing the slight of hand movement. In one case journalists report evidence of tholin on south pole is proven by NASA via Pluto shine. Four months later, journalists report on Pluto shine image without any comments related to proof of tholin on south pole. Convenient timing and precision of information release.
Is this how science works now?
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Convenient timing or deliberate slight of hand?
Make an assumption "cold trapping" Wait a year then Say one thing (we have proof), show another (picture without proof). Wait four months then. Show something (grainy image) and say nothing of proof. Creative deception? Feels a lot like the shell game. Look over there, while I move the pea over here. Watch this video, its important and relevant. |
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On with the show,
Pluto is a spray painter and graffiti artist painting the North and South poles of Charon, according to NASA.
Here's an article preview in Nature (for a $32 or $200 fee of course) I'm not willing to pay $32 every time NASA releases a paper so I am left with the previews which are extremely sparse. This is the 4 month old confirmation describing how Mordor was created by Pluto's atmosphere spray painting it with graffiti and the proof is in the mathematical formulas that show this could have happened.
Here's a slightly more detailed article in ABC Science News. This article has more info but is one journalists interpretation of the information which could be totally accurate or partially accurate. Without first hand access to the paper, I am forced to feed off the crumbs of others.
Quote from this article
Dr Grundy said Charon's south pole was also likely to be red but at this stage the only colour images available are of the north pole.
End Quote
Pluto is a spray painter and graffiti artist painting the North and South poles of Charon, according to NASA.
Here's an article preview in Nature (for a $32 or $200 fee of course) I'm not willing to pay $32 every time NASA releases a paper so I am left with the previews which are extremely sparse. This is the 4 month old confirmation describing how Mordor was created by Pluto's atmosphere spray painting it with graffiti and the proof is in the mathematical formulas that show this could have happened.
Here's a slightly more detailed article in ABC Science News. This article has more info but is one journalists interpretation of the information which could be totally accurate or partially accurate. Without first hand access to the paper, I am forced to feed off the crumbs of others.
Quote from this article
Dr Grundy said Charon's south pole was also likely to be red but at this stage the only colour images available are of the north pole.
End Quote
Update Aug 17th, 2017
Here's the best information I've found describing the Pluto shine and potential detection of tholin on the southern hemisphere of Charon. I have some concerns about the chart on this article which claims to show similar darkening toward the south pole.
Here's the best information I've found describing the Pluto shine and potential detection of tholin on the southern hemisphere of Charon. I have some concerns about the chart on this article which claims to show similar darkening toward the south pole.
I'll begin with the first peculiar statement in this paper which refers to Mordor as a "feature unique in the solar system".
Really?
How about this feature on Nix, anything look similar?
This is an impact site on Nix created by a smaller object which was covered in tholin, notice any similarities?
Really?
How about this feature on Nix, anything look similar?
This is an impact site on Nix created by a smaller object which was covered in tholin, notice any similarities?
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The chart in this article has quite a large slop factor (error bar).
The vertical bars are the error range or potential range of reflectance variance within that latitude of Charon. Any point along the vertical bar is just as potentially correct as any other point. The further away from sun light or the further into Pluto Shine light the greater the slop factor. The red line is the upper potential reflectance while the blue line is the lower potential reflectance at that particular latitude. NASA picked the halfway point along each bar but any other point could have been selected and been equally as accurate. |
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NASA chose these points along the bars to suggest the albedo of the N and S are similar. <<<<<<<< But these points could have been chosen and would be equally as potentially correct. >>>>>>>> |
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Or these closely matching points on the bars could have been used placing their alignment to the northern hemisphere reflectance almost identical. |
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The point is, arbitrarily selecting the midway point along the bars is no more accurate than any other point and the slop factor grows significantly the further into darkness or Pluto shine we travel. |
The other peculiarity is that from 0 to 30 degrees latitude you'd expect a near perfect match from north and south since Charon is exposed to Sun light in both these latitudes but the slop factor while reduced still doesn't align.
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Another thing that's odd to me is how the article says.
The polar location of these deposits and their presence on both hemispheres indicates that the most likely explanation is cold-trapping at Charon's poles of methane (CH4) gas escaping from Pluto's atmosphere (bottom right). Cold trapped methane (CH4) gasses are what they speak of but the image shown represents nitrogen (notice the n in the black inset) not methane (CH4). Quote from a paper, page 4 N2, CO, and CH4 ices are all volatiles at Pluto surface temperature, of which CH4 is the least volatile, N2 is the most volatile of these gasses. Seems to me this is like saying cars are the source of air pollution then showing a train billowing out carbon smoke and soot. If they're going to make a statement about cold trapping methane on Charon why are they showing N2? I don't think anyone's being deceitful here, I just don't understand the logic. |
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Then there's this temperature chart indicating it gets really cold between the 30 to 90 degree latitudes during the winter years when there is no sunshine on that hemisphere while the equator stays relatively steady.
Since Pluto and Charon are tidally locked and tilted at the same angle to the Sun and torque and twist each other by up to 24 degrees with their axial wobble, Pluto's equator should also have this same type of steady temperature range but that doesn't jive with the NASA theory that SP is a cold trap zone like the north and south pole region of Charon is supposed to be. At the very least these temperature bands disprove the theory of Sputnik Planitia's N2 ices being the result of cold trapping. |
Too much conflicting possibilities in all these scenarios. It would be nice if NASA tried to implement some consistencies in these theories. This theory feels very much like another scenario where scientists are doing everything they can to force fit data into their preconceived conclusions.
I could be completely wrong about this but I'm sticking with Mordor as an impact site.
I could be completely wrong about this but I'm sticking with Mordor as an impact site.
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I don't believe these scientists are doing this intentionally, they are simply drinking the kool-aid and don't know how else to approach these problems.
They predetermined what would be found when we arrived and they are now entrenched in their formulas and models and can't see beyond them. This narrows their vision and shuts their eyes to observations that are staring them in the face. They are prisoners to their own intelligence and this mathematically finite way of viewing things. One formula is used to support the next and on it goes. |
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Their ability to analyze details is impressive but this can be and often is their Achilles heel. This attention to detail is how they got us to Pluto but now they are missing basic observational facts that are right in front of them because their formulas are more real to them than observations.
The timing and precision of released statements and images does cause one to wonder.
As a manager, I succumbed to similar complications. I could look right at a problematic situation and if a chart or a graph or document told me it wasn't an issue or a problem I accepted the documentation over reality. Stupid I know, but when your world is built around documents you tend to rely on them as gospel truth. I have an immense amount of respect for these scientists. Alan Stern is my hero but I'm always going to fight to explore the truth or at least search for the most accurate interpretation of the information I have at my disposal and present Pluto's story as best I can, that doesn't mean I'm right. NASA scientists are doing the same thing with the tools they are familiar with.
This is my documentation of a potentially different reality for Pluto/Charon.
La lucha continua.
The timing and precision of released statements and images does cause one to wonder.
As a manager, I succumbed to similar complications. I could look right at a problematic situation and if a chart or a graph or document told me it wasn't an issue or a problem I accepted the documentation over reality. Stupid I know, but when your world is built around documents you tend to rely on them as gospel truth. I have an immense amount of respect for these scientists. Alan Stern is my hero but I'm always going to fight to explore the truth or at least search for the most accurate interpretation of the information I have at my disposal and present Pluto's story as best I can, that doesn't mean I'm right. NASA scientists are doing the same thing with the tools they are familiar with.
This is my documentation of a potentially different reality for Pluto/Charon.
La lucha continua.
