Pluto Is Sprinkled With Strange "Halo" Craters and Scientists Are Perplexed

Impact

The Vega Terra region of Pluto is covered in craters that look like a clump of bright halos.

You can see how the bright rings stand out against the dark surface. The largest crater in the bottom right corner of the black and white and purple images spans a whopping 30 miles, according to NASA

The purple color (RIP, Prince) represents methane ice, while the blue color represents water ice:

NASA

Scientists have no idea why methane seems to cling to the crater rims and walls but not the bottoms of the craters. They also aren't sure why these craters aren't more widespread on Pluto.

The New Horizons spacecraft still hasn't finished returning all the data it captured in July 2015 when it whizzed past Pluto. We're sure to see more bizarre Pluto features, and scientists will have their hands full trying to figure out what they are.