Pluto: From Mountains to Plains
Explanation:
What do the sharpest views ever of Pluto show?
As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft moves into the outer
Solar System,
it is now sending back some of the highest resolution images from its
historic encounter with
Pluto in July.
Featured
here is one recently-received, high-resolution image.
On the left is
al-Idrisi Montes,
mountainous highlands thought composed primarily
of blocks of
solid
nitrogen.
A sharp transitional shoreline leads to the ice plains, on the right,
that compose part of the
heart-shaped feature known as
Sputnik
Planum.
Why the plains are textured with
ice pits
and segmented is currently unknown.
The image
was taken about 15 minutes before closest approach and shows an area
about 30 kilometers across.
The
New Horizons spacecraft is next scheduled
to fly past Kuiper Belt object
2014 MU 69
on New Year's Day 2019.
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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.
