After the historic flight of the system of Pluto and its satellites, the NASA probe “New Horizons” focused on transmitting the received data and images to Earth. On September 5, the spacecraft began to actively transmit data, and now we can admire new species of the frozen dwarf planet.
"The surface of Pluto is no less complex than the surface of Mars," says geologist of the New Horizons team, Jeff Moore.
The stripes on the ice plain of Sputnik could appear as a result of the movement of nitrogen glaciers.
This chaotic region to the west of the plain of Sputnik is very similar to the surface of the satellite of Jupiter in Europe.
“The occasional heaps of rocks and mountains can be huge blocks of water ice floating in the vast, denser and softer“ sea ”of frozen nitrogen,” says Jeff Moore.
Pluto’s varied surface consists of plains, mountains, and dark ridges, which can be huge dunes.
After the flight of Pluto on July 14 of this year, New Horizons turned around and took a picture of a dwarf planet, eclipsing the Sun. On the left, the photograph is minimally processed, while on the right is the result of its computer processing, performed in order to identify different layers of the atmosphere of Pluto.
Based on Popular Science
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