Wow. Wow. Wow. Several new images of Pluto and its moons courtesy of the New Horizons space probe were released today, as the space probe completed a flyby of the outermost planet’s system.
The closeup image of the mountain range (above) was taken 1.5 hours before New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, from 478,000 miles above the surface, and features mountains reaching 11,000 feet high that are “probably composed of Pluto’s water-ice bedrock.”
Writes NASA:
New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.
The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago — mere youngsters relative to the 4.56-billion-year age of the solar system — and may still be in the process of building, says Jeff Moore of New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI). That suggests the close-up region, which covers less than one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today.
Moore and his colleagues base the youthful age estimate on the lack of craters in this scene. Like the rest of Pluto, this region would presumably have been pummeled by space debris for billions of years and would have once been heavily cratered — unless recent activity had given the region a facelift, erasing those pockmarks.
“This is one of the youngest surfaces we’ve ever seen in the solar system,” says Moore.
Of its moon Charon (shot from a distance of 289,000 miles):
New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.
The mountains likely formed no more than 100 million years ago — mere youngsters relative to the 4.56-billion-year age of the solar system — and may still be in the process of building, says Jeff Moore of New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI). That suggests the close-up region, which covers less than one percent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active today.
Moore and his colleagues base the youthful age estimate on the lack of craters in this scene. Like the rest of Pluto, this region would presumably have been pummeled by space debris for billions of years and would have once been heavily cratered — unless recent activity had given the region a facelift, erasing those pockmarks.
“This is one of the youngest surfaces we’ve ever seen in the solar system,” says Moore.
And of its irregularly shaped moon Hydra, which according to scientists, is “probably covered with water ice, the most abundant ice in the universe” – New Horizons Project Scientist and LORRI science operations lead Hal Weaver says:
“New Horizons has finally nailed the basic physical properties of Hydra. We’re going to see Hydra even better in the images yet to come.”
OK NOW, EVERYBODY, SAY IT WITH ME: PLUTO IS A PLANET, GODDAMNIT. LET’S MAKE IT SO!
