Applicant -- The Unanticipated Splendor of Pluto

Until mid-2015 Pluto was a mystery.  The New Horizons mission revealed a planet with an astounding variety of landforms and icy surface materials.  Despite the frigid temperature Pluto is geomorphically and tectonically very active, including a vast frozen sea of convecting Nitrogen ice, flowing Nitrogen glaciers, several types of landscapes sculpted by sublimation of nitrogen and methane, and very recent cryovolcanic mountains.  The talk will review the findings from New Horizons and outline what we understand and what we still do not comprehend about the surface morphology of Pluto.