A Plutonian Landscape
Explanation:
This shadowy landscape
of majestic mountains and icy plains
stretches toward the horizon on a small, distant world.
It was captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when
New Horizons
looked back toward Pluto,
15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14.
The dramatic, low-angle,
near-twilight
scene follows rugged mountains formally known as Norgay Montes
from foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon,
giving way to smooth Sputnik Planum at
right.
Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere are also revealed
in the backlit view.
With a strangely familiar appearance, the frigid terrain likely
includes ices of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with
water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet).
That's comparable in height to the
majestic mountains of planet Earth.
The Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles) across.
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.
