Space & Astronomy
New mountain range revealed on Pluto
By
T.K. RandallJuly 22, 2015 ·
96 comments
The mountains lie in an area between two vastly different regions. Image Credit: NASA
New images from the New Horizons probe have revealed another vast region of mountains on Pluto's surface.
It has only been a few days since the first high resolution photographs of Pluto were returned by the spacecraft and already much has been revealed about what lies on this distant, icy world.
Earlier images of mountains comparable in height to the Rockies here on Earth have been joined by further pictures showing a separate chain of peaks similar in size to the Appalachian Mountains.
These remarkable geological features span the edge of Pluto's distinctive 'heart' which has since turned out to be broken up in to several different regions with varying textures and reflectivity.
Scientists are still working to determine the processes responsible for the stark transition between the dark crater-marked region on one side and the smooth frozen plains on the other.
"There is a pronounced difference in texture between the younger, frozen plains to the east and the dark, heavily-cratered terrain to the west," said New Horizons geophysicist Jeff Moore.
"There's a complex interaction going on between the bright and the dark materials that we're still trying to understand."
Source:
Washington Post |
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Tags:
Pluto, New Horizons
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