Translate

Global news (science)

NASA releases clearest images of Pluto world might see for decades

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN
Updated 1627 GMT (0027 HKT) December 5, 2015
NASA team members and guests count down to the spacecraft's approach to Pluto on Tuesday, July 14.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
20 of 39
This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on Monday, July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles from Pluto's surface.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
21 of 39
The colors in this image of Pluto and Charon are exaggerated to make it easy to see their different features. (These are not the actual colors of Pluto and Charon, and the two bodies aren't really that close together in space.) This image was created on July 13, one day before New Horizons was to make its closest approach to Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
22 of 39
This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on Sunday, July 12. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles from Pluto at the time.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
23 of 39
New Horizons snapped this photo of Charon on July 12. It reveals a system of chasms larger than the Grand Canyon. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles away when the image was taken.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
24 of 39
New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles from Pluto and Charon when it took this image on Wednesday, July 8.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
25 of 39
Do you see a heart on Pluto? This image was taken on Tuesday, July 7, by New Horizons when it was about 5 million miles from the planet. Look to the lower right, and you'll see a large bright area -- about 1,200 miles across -- that resembles a heart.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
26 of 39
New Horizons took six black-and-white photos of Pluto and Charon between June 23 and 29. The images were combined with color data from another instrument on the space probe to create the images above. The spacecraft was 15 million miles away when it started the sequence and 11 million miles when the last photo was taken.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
27 of 39
Pluto is shown here along with Charon in images taken on June 25 and 27. The image on the right shows a series of evenly spaced dark spots near Pluto's equator. Scientists hope to solve the puzzle as New Horizons gets closer to Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
28 of 39
New Horizons took a series of 13 images of Charon circling Pluto over the span of 6½ days in April. As the images were being taken, the spacecraft moved from about 69 million miles from Pluto to 64 million miles.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
29 of 39
Look carefully at the images above: They mark the first time New Horizons has photographed Pluto's smallest and faintest moons, Kerberos and Styx. The images were taken from April 25 to May 1.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
30 of 39
New Horizons used its color imager to capture this image of Pluto and Charon on April 9. This was the first color image taken by a spacecraft approaching Pluto and Charon, according to NASA. The spacecraft was about 71 million miles away from Pluto when the photo was taken.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
31 of 39
In August, New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune, the last planet it would pass on its journey to Pluto. New Horizons took this photo of Neptune and its large moon Triton when it was about 2.45 billion miles from the planet -- more than 26 times the distance between the Earth and our sun.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
32 of 39
New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io in early 2007.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
33 of 39
On its way to Pluto, New Horizons snapped these photos of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons. From left is Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
34 of 39
A white arrow points to Pluto in this photo taken in September 2006 from New Horizons. The spacecraft was still about 2.6 billion miles from Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
35 of 39
Pluto was discovered in 1930 but was only a speck of light in the best telescopes on Earth until February 2010, when NASA released this photo. It was created by combining several images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope -- each only a few pixels wide -- through a technique called dithering. NASA says it took four years and 20 computers operating continuously to create the image.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
36 of 39
This was one of the best views we had of Pluto and its moon Charon before the New Horizons mission. The image was taken by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope on February 21, 1994.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
37 of 39
A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons. Charon is the largest moon close to Pluto. The other four bright dots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
38 of 39
New Horizons launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on January 19, 2006. The probe, about the size of a piano, weighed nearly 1,054 pounds at launch. It has seven instruments on board to take images and sample Pluto's atmosphere. After it completes its five-month study of Pluto, the spacecraft will keep going deeper into the Kuiper Belt.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
39 of 39
NASA has released the clearest images yet of the surface of Pluto. This photo shows the the mountainous shoreline of Sputnik Planum. "The mountains bordering Sputnik Planum are absolutely stunning at this resolution," said New Horizons science team member John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-mountainous-shoreline-of-sputnik-planum" target="_blank">Read full caption.</a>
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
1 of 39
This image shows the layered interior walls of the planet's many craters. According to NASA, "layers in geology usually mean an important change in composition or event." However, NASA says the New Horizons team members do not know if they are seeing local, regional or global layering.<br />Most of the craters seen here lie within the 155-mile (250-kilometer)-wide Burney Basin. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/plutos-layered-craters-and-icy-plains" target="_blank">Read full caption.</a>
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
2 of 39
This image shows how erosion and faulting has sculpted Pluto's icy crust into rugged badlands. The prominent 1.2-mile-high cliff at the top is part of a great canyon system that stretches for hundreds of miles across Pluto's northern hemisphere, NASA says. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-s-badlands" target="_blank">Read full caption.</a>
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
3 of 39
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history" target="_blank">Pluto's largest moon, Charon</a>, in seen in enhanced color in this image taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. The space probe took the image just before it made its closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images to best highlight the moon's surface features. Charon is 754 miles (1,214 kilometers) across. The image was released on October 1, 2015.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
4 of 39
Images from two different instruments on New Horizons are combined in this photo to <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history" target="_blank">show Charon's cratered uplands</a> at the top and a series of canyons. The bottom of the image shows rolling plains.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
5 of 39
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history" target="_blank">This composite of enhanced color images</a> shows the striking differences between Pluto (lower right) and its largest moon, Charon (upper left). NASA says the color and brightness of the two worlds have been processed identically to allow for direct comparison. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
6 of 39
These photos show Pluto's variety of textures -- including what NASA calls "rounded and bizarrely textured mountains." The mountains are informally called the Tartarus Dorsa. This image shows about 330 miles (530 kilometers) of Pluto's terrain. It combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the space probe's Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera. The images were taken on July 14, 2015, during the probe's flyby. They were released on September 24, 2015.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
7 of 39
The photos taken by New Horizons just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, are the sharpest images to date of Pluto's varied terrain. This high-resolution image reveals details of two ice mountains. The image spans 75 miles (120 kilometers) of Pluto's surface.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
8 of 39
This image of the surface of Pluto was taken just 15 minutes after NASA's New Horizon spacecraft made its closest approach to the icy planet on July 14, 2015. As it looked toward the Sun, the spacecraft's camera captured more than dozen thin layers of haze in Pluto's atmosphere, at least 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. The photo was downlinked to Earth on September 13, 2015.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
9 of 39
This image of Pluto's icy and mountainous landscapes was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers). "This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
10 of 39
This picture is a synthesis of new high-resolution images downlinked from New Horizons. The broad icy plains have been nicknamed Sputnik Planum. This image is from a perspective above Pluto's equatorial area. Astronomers began downlinking a data dump from the space craft over Labor Day weekend, September 5 to 7.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
11 of 39
Scientists say that what looks like mountains could be huge blocks of frozen water suspended in frozen nitrogen. On the new photos, taken on July 14 and released on September 10, a pixel is 400 meters (440 yards). New Horizons' closest pass by Pluto took it about 50,000 miles from the surface.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
12 of 39
Pluto's landscape has lots of variety -- plains, mountains, craters, and what looks like they might be dunes. The smallest details on the photos are about 0.5 miles wide. The area with the craters is ancient, scientist say. The smooth frozen planes are relatively young.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
13 of 39
Just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft snapped this photo of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The photo was shot at a distance of 290,000 miles away. Charon's north pole region is markedly dark. This photo was released on September 10.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
14 of 39
This new image of Pluto is stunning planetary scientists. It shows the small world's atmosphere, backlit by the sun. NASA says the image reveals layers of haze that are several times higher than predicted. The photo was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft seven hours after its closest approach to Pluto on Tuesday, July 14. New Horizons was about 1.25 million miles away from Pluto at the time.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
15 of 39
Images taken of Pluto's heart-shaped feature, informally named "Tombaugh Regio," reveal a "vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old," NASA said on Friday, July 17. The frozen region "is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes." NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 and traveled 3 billion miles to the dwarf planet.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
16 of 39
Close-up images of a region near Pluto's equator revealed a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains. NASA released the image on Wednesday, July 15.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
17 of 39
Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, are revealed in this image released on July 15.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
18 of 39
The latest spectra analysis from New Horizons' Ralph instrument was released on July 15. It reveals an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from place to place across the frozen surface of Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
19 of 39
NASA team members and guests count down to the spacecraft's approach to Pluto on Tuesday, July 14.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
20 of 39
This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on Monday, July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles from Pluto's surface.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
21 of 39
The colors in this image of Pluto and Charon are exaggerated to make it easy to see their different features. (These are not the actual colors of Pluto and Charon, and the two bodies aren't really that close together in space.) This image was created on July 13, one day before New Horizons was to make its closest approach to Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
22 of 39
This image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on Sunday, July 12. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles from Pluto at the time.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
23 of 39
New Horizons snapped this photo of Charon on July 12. It reveals a system of chasms larger than the Grand Canyon. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles away when the image was taken.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
24 of 39
New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles from Pluto and Charon when it took this image on Wednesday, July 8.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
25 of 39
Do you see a heart on Pluto? This image was taken on Tuesday, July 7, by New Horizons when it was about 5 million miles from the planet. Look to the lower right, and you'll see a large bright area -- about 1,200 miles across -- that resembles a heart.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
26 of 39
New Horizons took six black-and-white photos of Pluto and Charon between June 23 and 29. The images were combined with color data from another instrument on the space probe to create the images above. The spacecraft was 15 million miles away when it started the sequence and 11 million miles when the last photo was taken.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
27 of 39
Pluto is shown here along with Charon in images taken on June 25 and 27. The image on the right shows a series of evenly spaced dark spots near Pluto's equator. Scientists hope to solve the puzzle as New Horizons gets closer to Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
28 of 39
New Horizons took a series of 13 images of Charon circling Pluto over the span of 6½ days in April. As the images were being taken, the spacecraft moved from about 69 million miles from Pluto to 64 million miles.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
29 of 39
Look carefully at the images above: They mark the first time New Horizons has photographed Pluto's smallest and faintest moons, Kerberos and Styx. The images were taken from April 25 to May 1.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
30 of 39
New Horizons used its color imager to capture this image of Pluto and Charon on April 9. This was the first color image taken by a spacecraft approaching Pluto and Charon, according to NASA. The spacecraft was about 71 million miles away from Pluto when the photo was taken.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
31 of 39
In August, New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune, the last planet it would pass on its journey to Pluto. New Horizons took this photo of Neptune and its large moon Triton when it was about 2.45 billion miles from the planet -- more than 26 times the distance between the Earth and our sun.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
32 of 39
New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io in early 2007.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
33 of 39
On its way to Pluto, New Horizons snapped these photos of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons. From left is Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
34 of 39
A white arrow points to Pluto in this photo taken in September 2006 from New Horizons. The spacecraft was still about 2.6 billion miles from Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
35 of 39
Pluto was discovered in 1930 but was only a speck of light in the best telescopes on Earth until February 2010, when NASA released this photo. It was created by combining several images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope -- each only a few pixels wide -- through a technique called dithering. NASA says it took four years and 20 computers operating continuously to create the image.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
36 of 39
This was one of the best views we had of Pluto and its moon Charon before the New Horizons mission. The image was taken by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope on February 21, 1994.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
37 of 39
A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons. Charon is the largest moon close to Pluto. The other four bright dots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
38 of 39
New Horizons launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on January 19, 2006. The probe, about the size of a piano, weighed nearly 1,054 pounds at launch. It has seven instruments on board to take images and sample Pluto's atmosphere. After it completes its five-month study of Pluto, the spacecraft will keep going deeper into the Kuiper Belt.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
39 of 39
NASA has released the clearest images yet of the surface of Pluto. This photo shows the the mountainous shoreline of Sputnik Planum. "The mountains bordering Sputnik Planum are absolutely stunning at this resolution," said New Horizons science team member John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-mountainous-shoreline-of-sputnik-planum" target="_blank">Read full caption.</a>
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
1 of 39
This image shows the layered interior walls of the planet's many craters. According to NASA, "layers in geology usually mean an important change in composition or event." However, NASA says the New Horizons team members do not know if they are seeing local, regional or global layering.<br />Most of the craters seen here lie within the 155-mile (250-kilometer)-wide Burney Basin. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/plutos-layered-craters-and-icy-plains" target="_blank">Read full caption.</a>
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
2 of 39
This image shows how erosion and faulting has sculpted Pluto's icy crust into rugged badlands. The prominent 1.2-mile-high cliff at the top is part of a great canyon system that stretches for hundreds of miles across Pluto's northern hemisphere, NASA says. <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-s-badlands" target="_blank">Read full caption.</a>
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
3 of 39
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history" target="_blank">Pluto's largest moon, Charon</a>, in seen in enhanced color in this image taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. The space probe took the image just before it made its closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images to best highlight the moon's surface features. Charon is 754 miles (1,214 kilometers) across. The image was released on October 1, 2015.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
4 of 39
Images from two different instruments on New Horizons are combined in this photo to <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history" target="_blank">show Charon's cratered uplands</a> at the top and a series of canyons. The bottom of the image shows rolling plains.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
5 of 39
<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history" target="_blank">This composite of enhanced color images</a> shows the striking differences between Pluto (lower right) and its largest moon, Charon (upper left). NASA says the color and brightness of the two worlds have been processed identically to allow for direct comparison. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
6 of 39
These photos show Pluto's variety of textures -- including what NASA calls "rounded and bizarrely textured mountains." The mountains are informally called the Tartarus Dorsa. This image shows about 330 miles (530 kilometers) of Pluto's terrain. It combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the space probe's Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera. The images were taken on July 14, 2015, during the probe's flyby. They were released on September 24, 2015.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
7 of 39
The photos taken by New Horizons just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, are the sharpest images to date of Pluto's varied terrain. This high-resolution image reveals details of two ice mountains. The image spans 75 miles (120 kilometers) of Pluto's surface.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
8 of 39
This image of the surface of Pluto was taken just 15 minutes after NASA's New Horizon spacecraft made its closest approach to the icy planet on July 14, 2015. As it looked toward the Sun, the spacecraft's camera captured more than dozen thin layers of haze in Pluto's atmosphere, at least 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. The photo was downlinked to Earth on September 13, 2015.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
9 of 39
This image of Pluto's icy and mountainous landscapes was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers). "This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
10 of 39
This picture is a synthesis of new high-resolution images downlinked from New Horizons. The broad icy plains have been nicknamed Sputnik Planum. This image is from a perspective above Pluto's equatorial area. Astronomers began downlinking a data dump from the space craft over Labor Day weekend, September 5 to 7.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
11 of 39
Scientists say that what looks like mountains could be huge blocks of frozen water suspended in frozen nitrogen. On the new photos, taken on July 14 and released on September 10, a pixel is 400 meters (440 yards). New Horizons' closest pass by Pluto took it about 50,000 miles from the surface.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
12 of 39
Pluto's landscape has lots of variety -- plains, mountains, craters, and what looks like they might be dunes. The smallest details on the photos are about 0.5 miles wide. The area with the craters is ancient, scientist say. The smooth frozen planes are relatively young.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
13 of 39
Just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft snapped this photo of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The photo was shot at a distance of 290,000 miles away. Charon's north pole region is markedly dark. This photo was released on September 10.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
14 of 39
This new image of Pluto is stunning planetary scientists. It shows the small world's atmosphere, backlit by the sun. NASA says the image reveals layers of haze that are several times higher than predicted. The photo was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft seven hours after its closest approach to Pluto on Tuesday, July 14. New Horizons was about 1.25 million miles away from Pluto at the time.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
15 of 39
Images taken of Pluto's heart-shaped feature, informally named "Tombaugh Regio," reveal a "vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old," NASA said on Friday, July 17. The frozen region "is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes." NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 and traveled 3 billion miles to the dwarf planet.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
16 of 39
Close-up images of a region near Pluto's equator revealed a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains. NASA released the image on Wednesday, July 15.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
17 of 39
Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, are revealed in this image released on July 15.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
18 of 39
The latest spectra analysis from New Horizons' Ralph instrument was released on July 15. It reveals an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from place to place across the frozen surface of Pluto.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
19 of 39
NASA team members and guests count down to the spacecraft's approach to Pluto on Tuesday, July 14.
39 photos: Pluto on the horizon
Show Caption
20 of 39

Story highlights

  • New Horizons spacecraft captured the images in July flyby
  • They show craters, mountains and icy terrain in sharpest images yet
(
N)Black and white images beamed to Earth could be some of the clearest close-ups of Pluto's surface humans see for decades, NASA says.
The images, taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, show craters, mountains and glacial terrain along a strip 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide.
The spacecraft took them in July during its closest flyby of Pluto --- which is at a distance from Earth that varies from 4.67 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) to 2.66 billion miles (4.28 billion kilometers) -- and they were among the most recent batch sent to back to our planet.
"New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see," said John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut and the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
Complete coverage on Space and Science
    The images stretch from Pluto's horizon -- about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northwest of Sputnik Planum -- across the al-Idrisi mountains, over the shoreline of Sputnik and across its icy plains, NASA says.
    New Horizons sped past Pluto in July but it will take about one year to transfer all the photos and data.
    Researchers expect more images to come in over the next week, showing even more terrain at the highest resolution possible.
    Posted by
    Labels:

    No comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)