New close-up images of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
reveal a bewildering variety of surface features that have scientists
reeling because of their range and complexity.
New Horizons began its yearlong download of new images and other data
over the Labor Day weekend. Images downlinked in the past few days have
more than doubled the amount of Pluto’s surface seen at resolutions as
good as 400 meters (440 yards) per pixel. They reveal new features as
diverse as possible dunes, nitrogen ice flows that apparently oozed out
of mountainous regions onto plains, and even networks of valleys that
may have been carved by material flowing over Pluto’s surface. They also
show large regions that display chaotically jumbled mountains
reminiscent of disrupted terrains on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
New images also show the most heavily cratered -- and thus oldest --
terrain yet seen by New Horizons on Pluto next to the youngest, most
crater-free icy plains. There might even be a field of dark wind-blown
dunes, among other possibilities.
Source - NASA
