Pluto from above Cthulhu Regio
Explanation:
New high resolution images of Pluto are starting to arrive from the outer Solar System.
The robotic New Horizons spacecraft,
which zoomed by
Pluto in July,
has finished sending back some needed engineering data and is
now transmitting selections from its tremendous storehouse of
images of Pluto and its moons.
The
featured image,
a digital composite, details a
surprising terrain
filled with craters, plains, landscape of unknown character,
and landforms that resemble something on Earth but are quite unexpected
on Pluto.
The light area sprawling across the upper right has been dubbed
Sputnik Planum and is
being studied for its unusual smoothness, while the dark cratered area just under
the spacecraft is known as
Cthulhu Regio.
So far, New Horizons has only shared a
few percent of the images and data it took during its Pluto flyby, but will
continue to send back new views
of the dwarf planet even as it glides outward toward even more distant explorations.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
