From the erratic Neptune crossing 17 degree off ecliptic orbit, and its barycentric dance with Charon, to its unusual coloring, atmosphere and heart-shaped ocean of
hydrocarbon ices, this little ball of oddity with the "science fiction surface, more important than Mars" has captivated the attention of scientists and the public worldwide.
It has definitely captured the attention of this investigator of planetary imaging anomaly, and not just for what it is, but for what was noticed once we got a good look at it.
We should all applaud and support the New Horizons mission and science teams as they wrest important facts and never before imagined discoveries from the precious data captured as the
spacecraft shot by Pluto, data which is now being slowly received here on earth as New Horizons continues its amazing journey on out there, further. They are scientists, I am an anomalist.
I'll learn of their science, can they learn from my anomalies? Maybe so, maybe no. Regardless, I will do my best to show what is seen when I gaze upon this unexplored land of high strangeness
viewing through eyes and imagery skills trained for nearly 20 years to pick out odd and rare planetary objects and things that have made the best of us sit back and go "hmmm...could it be?"
If you've arrived here after first visiting my Pluto page, you will already know that this enchanting world is both intriguing and stunningly beautiful.
If you've reached it after visiting my Pluto's Boneyard page, you probably already know as well that it may in fact harbor something.. wonderful.
Perhaps Dave can say it better
That said, there are some incredibly strange anomalous surface features situated along the boundary between the dark of Cthulhu Regio and the light of Sputnik Planum
at locations named (unofficially at present) the Hillary and Norgay Montes, where the thinning Sputnik Planum ice sea meets the so-called "Ice Mountains of Pluto"
In the days following the fly-by every release of images was awaited with eager anticipation, and then in short order of time the New Horizons team began providing us with
what I believe so far may just be the images of the century, a culminating event for a hundred years of fascinated curiosity surrounding this great unknown in 'our' backyard.
Two particular images caught my attention. Though these images were a bit compressed, and better copies of them plus much more are promised over the near future as they are
received. I found them nevertheless fairly adequate for further study and enhancement. Having long been accustomed to making the most of space imagery that had been done
likewise, this was no insurmountable obstacle, in fact, not much of an obstacle at all. As well, modern commercial digital imaging software is simply amazing in capable hands
You can find both these images in a decent format and fairly well preprocessed below if you so wish to have your own original copies.
Hillary Montes | Norgay Montes You may also want to have my large web version enhancement of both images together here
It is in these two areas I first noticed that the so-called ice mountains had some pretty blatant anomalous geometry going on within. I find them eerily reminiscent of similar features
located in another well known area of anomalous study (Cydonia, Mars) only these seem to be in a much better state of preservation. The two areas are replete with stacked tetrahedrons
and titanic pyramidal massifs in various states of collapse, some missing their entire tops exposing details within; some only missing portions. On closer review it became apparent to me
these just might be something we'd theorized about for some time: ruined arcologies. Arcologies are gigantic self contained ecosystems/habitats, built to contain everything needed for
beings to live- inside. This is absolutely the way to go if you are planning on maintaining a living population in a harsh environment such as space, or on an extraterrestrial celestial body.
These type structures have long been written into science fiction. Artists and architects created them in ornate engineered drawings, even built them here on Earth. Of course, our technological
ability to do the same surely pales beside the level needed to build and maintain such structures on other planets, nevertheless, before long we may indeed construct them ourselves on the Moon.
If that is in fact what these were, I will be the first to admit that this is almost unbelievably incredible. We of course have seen possible evidence of similar types of structures on the
Moon and on Mars. Regrettably, both those bodies have been literally beaten to a jumbled mess over eons, and though most items of this nature postulated to be found on them are
on this scale, and in these shapes, they're just not in any state of condition to be readily recognizable as these appear to be. I assure you we've never seen their like, and in such splendid
conditions. Imagine the freeze dried and preserved record of an extremely advanced civilization sitting there abiding time after perhaps a cosmic cataclysm or stellar war, slowly crumbling
due to the ravages of time and Pluto's harsh climate as well as internally deteriorating forces eating them away from within. The stories such structures could tell, technology that could be
retrieved; the possibilities are simply mind boggling, the implications civilization altering, but most important to me would be this question: Who built these, and what became of them?
We'll save that question for later hypothesis, for now I'd like to show you how I see these features as not mere ice mountains, but something far more incredible.
