New Pluto pics show weird terrain shaped by alien ‘water’ cycle
Pluto has again stunned researchers in the latest pictures downloaded from NASA’s New Horizons probe. The images, taken just 15 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14, reveal incredible mountain ranges and glaciers that look surprisingly like Earth.
In the first picture, above, New Horizons is looking back at Pluto, towards the sun, allowing the probe’s camera to spy the layered haze of the tiny world’s tenuous nitrogen atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 18000 kilometres and stretches 1250 kilometres across, around half the width of the entire dwarf planet.
This second image zooms in on the central region of the first and you can really see these 3.5 kilometre high mountains popping out. They lie just to the left of Pluto’s now famous heart-shaped ice plain, informally known as Sputnik Planum.
“This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself,” said New Horizons lead scientist Alan Stern. “But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details about Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains.”
Zooming further reveals a low-lying fog illuminated by the setting sun. That suggests Pluto’s weather changes daily, just like on Earth. The team now believe that Pluto has a “water” cycle similar to Earth’s, but with exotic ices like frozen nitrogen, rather than water.
“We did not expect to find hints of a nitrogen-based glacial cycle on Pluto operating in the frigid conditions of the outer solar system,” said team member Alan Howard. “Driven by dim sunlight, this would be directly comparable to the hydrological cycle that feeds ice caps on Earth, where water is evaporated from the oceans, falls as snow, and returns to the seas through glacial flow.”
Read more about New Horizon’s Pluto Flyby
New Pluto pics show weird terrain shaped by alien ‘water’ cycle Pluto has again stunned researchers in the latest pictures downloaded from NASA’s New Horizons probe. The images, taken just 15 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14, reveal incredible mountain ranges and glaciers that look surprisingly like Earth. In the first picture, above, New Horizons is looking back at Pluto, towards the sun, allowing the probe’s camera to spy the layered haze of the tiny world’s tenuous nitrogen atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 18000 kilometres and stretches 1250 kilometres across, around half the width of the entire dwarf planet. This second image zooms in on the central region of the first and you can really see these 3.5 kilometre high mountains popping out. They lie just to the left of Pluto’s now famous heart-shaped ice plain, informally known as Sputnik Planum. “This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself,” said New Horizons lead scientist Alan Stern. “But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details about Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains.” Zooming further reveals a low-lying fog illuminated by the setting sun. That suggests Pluto’s weather changes daily, just like on Earth. The team now believe that Pluto has a “water” cycle similar to Earth’s, but with exotic ices like frozen nitrogen, rather than water. “We did not expect to find hints of a nitrogen-based glacial cycle on Pluto operating in the frigid conditions of the outer solar system,” said team member Alan Howard. “Driven by dim sunlight, this would be directly comparable to the hydrological cycle that feeds ice caps on Earth, where water is evaporated from the oceans, falls as snow, and returns to the seas through glacial flow.” Read more about New Horizon’s Pluto Flyby
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