New, more detailed images of Pluto , passed in recent days by the New Horizons spacecraft reveal a bewildering diversity and complexity of relief, never before seen in the solar system, according to NASA scientists.
“If an artist had represented before the Pluto flyby -for our part of New Horizons, which achieved its closest approach to the dwarf planet on 14 July- I probably would have thought I was hallucinating. But that’s the reality, “said mission chief scientist, Alan Stern, the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).
” Pluto us shows a variety of reliefs and complexity of geological formations ever seen in the solar system “, said in a statement.
Geologically ” surface Pluto is as complex as that of Mars “, estimated to turn geologist Jeff Moore, a member of the mission.
The latest images show what appear to be dunes and roads solid nitrogen highlands descend to a network of valleys.
These snapshots, which more than doubled the visible surface of Pluto , also reveal vast mountain areas a chaotic relief that recalls parts of Europe, or one of the icy moons of Jupiter.
Could be giant blocks of ice floating in a denser vast reservoir of solid nitrogen is located on a plateau named “Sputnik Planum”
-. The mystery of the dunes –
These new images show parts of Pluto with the highest density craters ever seen so far on the planet, near frozen plains, most recent geological and almost do not have craters.
“If dunes were indeed what we see on Pluto would be really surprising as the dwarf planet’s atmosphere is too thin to produce winds, “said Bill McKinnon, the Washington University St. Louis, one of the scientists responsible for the mission.
“O Pluto had a denser atmosphere in the past, or are running other processes not know; is a puzzle, “he said.
The new images also reveal that atmospheric vapors around Pluto, which rise up to 130 kilometers altitude, consist of more layers than they thought scientists.
The fog surrounding the plans to create a glow that illuminates the surface faintly approaching dusk, which became visible in the sun to Pluto cameras New Horizons .
The probe began sending to Earth New images and other data from the planet in early September. This transmission process will continue until the end of 2016, due the distance that separates us from the probe, which is currently almost 5,000 million kilometers from Earth.
New Horizons is currently more than 12.5 million Pluto kilometers and immersed in the Kuiper Belt, the wide ring of debris surrounding the solar system.
NASA potential recently selected a new destination to explore probe after its historic flyby of Pluto in July: it is a small object in the Kuiper Belt called “2014 MU69″ nearly 1,600 million kilometers of Pluto
The probe also began broadcasting. Friday three best images of the moons of Pluto, Charon, Nix and Hydra, showing that they are very different.
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