NASA releases new views of the orb's topography

Sep 18, 2015 19:33 GMT  ·  By

It was earlier this year, on July 14, that NASA's New Horizons space probe, launched back in January 2006 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, reached dwarf planet Pluto on the edge of our Solar System and flew by the orb and its accompanying moons. 

During its historic flyby of Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft snapped dozens of images revealing the orb's topography. A gorgeous view of the dwarf planet illuminated by the Sun at long last reached Earth this past September 13 and was released by NASA just yesterday.

Pluto is oddly Earth-like, researchers say

The near-sunset view of Pluto obtained by New Horizons just 15 minutes after its July 14 flyby and made public by mission scientists at NASA this Thursday covers landscapes spanning across some 780 miles (1,250 kilometers). The view is included in the gallery below.

It shows mountains, frozen plains, glaciers and foggy hazes, imaged by the NASA probe from a distance of about 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers).

An icy plain dubbed Sputnik Planum is visible towards the center of the view. Mountains measuring up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) in height sit to its left. Then, to the right, the New Horizons spacecraft saw rougher terrain criss-crossed by what appear to be glaciers.

It might be that Pluto resides on the outskirts of the Solar System, but mission scientists over at NASA cannot help but compare these images of its surface to landscapes here on Earth. They say these images delivered by New Horizons remind them of the Arctic.

“The latest images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft have scientists stunned - not only for their breathtaking views of Pluto’s majestic icy mountains, streams of frozen nitrogen and haunting low-lying hazes, but also for their strangely familiar, arctic look.”

Pluto is not a dead world, the views reveal

As noted, this latest view of Pluto to reach us here on Earth also shows hazes in the orb's atmosphere. NASA scientists say the image shows about a dozen thin haze layers that start near the surface and then reach an altitude of at least 60 miles (100 kilometers).

Among these haze layers is a low-lying one that very much resembles the fog that forms here on Earth. Researchers say the hazes are an indicator that, just like our planet, faraway Pluto experiences day-to-day shifts in weather conditions.

New views of Pluto (6 Images)

Artist's rendering of the New Horizons probe
Panoramic view of PlutoA closer look at Pluto's mountains and frozen plains
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