We now know Pluto is home to an icy mountain range, but today’s briefing and new photos from NASA show that Pluto is also home to some vast plains.
Most of the dwarf planet’s geological features so far are showing up around that heart-shaped region. The new close-up photo reveals a “vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old,” NASA reported in a statement.
“This terrain is not easy to explain,” said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., in the NASA statement. “The discovery of vast, craterless, very young plains on Pluto exceeds all pre-flyby expectations.”
The icy plains have now been dubbed the “Sputnik Planum,” or Sputnik Plain, after Earth’s first artificial satellite. While the pics show the terrain of shallow troughs, irregularly shaped segments and clumps of hills and pits, NASA will learn more as New Horizons sends back more higher-res and stereo images throughout the next year.
Now, enjoy this simulated flyover of the Norgay Montes (Norgay Mountains) and the Sputnik Plain, created by piecing together images from New Horizons’ closest approach, at a distance of about 48,000 miles, capturing features as small as a half-mile long.
