A new photo beamed back to Earth from New Horizons shows Pluto’s tall, ice mountains casting long shadows on the surface of the dwarf planet below an envelope of haze illuminated by the setting Sun. These nitrogen-infused layers hint that Pluto’s weather changes on a day-to-day basis and in a similar fashion to Earth, Will Grundy, a New Horizons scientist at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said in the release.
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The newest pictures of Pluto are so up-close and personal that the mission’s top scientist says it “makes you feel you are there”. Dramatic backlighting from the Sun helps highlight the dwarf planet’s diverse terrain and more than a dozen layers of haze in its atmosphere – extending from near the ground to at least 100km (60 miles) above the surface.
“The surface of Pluto is every bit as complex as that of Mars”, said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team at NASA’s Ames Research Center, in the statement. Instead of water, though, the New Horizons team thinks it’s nitrogen at work and depositing soft, exotic ices across the dwarf planet.
The huge panorama, which is 780 miles wide, was captured just minutes after the Sun set over Pluto casting the final rays of light over the 11,000 feet Norgay Mountains. The agency has released several images of a smooth plain it is calling Sputnik Planum. “But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details about Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains”.
The world can expect to see many more stunning new views from the Pluto flyby over the coming year or so.
“Pluto is surprisingly Earth-like in this regard”, added Stern, “and no one predicted it”.
The say the ice evaporates, condenses, and falls as snow.
Due to the vast distances involved, the small size of New Horizons’ main antenna and the power of its radio transmitters, only a small fraction of the probe’s flyby imagery has been transmitted to Earth.
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New Horizons released a fresh batch of photographs from its collection today, and I’m in love all over again.
