At the edge of the solar system, Pluto’s topography becomes increasingly fascinating. New pictures released on Thursday by NASA and taken, even in July, the probe New Horizons , put the viewer into that icy world, much more complex and similar to Earth than originally scientists thought .
The images are July 14, captured 15 minutes after the probe have made the closest approach to the dwarf planet. First of all, some data on Pluto: the star was discovered in 1930 by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh; It is an average of 39.5 astronomical units from the Sun (one astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun, about 150 million kilometers); It is part of the Kuiper belt – a region that lies beyond Neptune’s orbit where thousands of small icy bodies revolve around the Sun; has 2300 kilometers in diameter, is smaller than the moon, it takes 248 years for a ride to the Sun and has an average surface temperature of 229 degrees below zero.
In recent months, the probe New Horizons has been providing increasingly detailed pictures of that star. We got to know the “heart” of Pluto where the Sputnik Plain, and nearby lowland mountain ranges. Two of which have won names, Norgay Montes and Hillary Montes (in honor of the first climbers to climb Mount Everest, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary).
In these photos, NASA scientists were also able to uncover the faint but deep atmosphere of Pluto, and glaciers made solid nitrogen base. Now, with the new photos, you can see Pluto’s landscape just 18,000 kilometers away.
“The image really makes you feel that we are there, on Pluto, looking at the landscape our taste, “says Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons , of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “But this is also a bonanza scientific, revealing new details of Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains,” stresses, quoted a statement from NASA.
In the photographs you can distinguish more than ten layers of the thin atmosphere of Pluto that will at least up to 100 kilometers altitude. To the right, there is a part of the Plain Sputnik, ending the west (left) with the start of mountain ranges that rise up to 3,500 meters, including Norgay Montes, in the foreground, and Hillary Montes, in line the horizon.
In addition to the layers of the atmosphere, it is possible to observe at least a fog bank. “In addition to be visually impressive, these fog close to the ground suggest that the time Pluto changes daily, just as on Earth,” notes Will Grundy, one of the leaders of the mission, from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, quoted by NASA.
According to the statement, scientists believe that the hydrological cycle on Pluto, made by different types of ice, including nitrogen, is responsible for evaporating gases from the icy surface of the Plain Sputnik, falling, in the form of snow, adjacent white mountains. The new images, the scientists only had access to 14 September, also revealed the existence of glaciers, formed in those mountains from the snow, which then trickle back to the great plain.
These features geographical are similar to glaciers moving on the margins of ice caps in Greenland or Antarctica.
“We did not expect to find clues of a glacial cycle based on nitrogen on Pluto, which works in icy conditions on the outside of solar system, “says Alan Howard, another member of the mission, which belongs to the team of Geology, Geophysics and Image, University of Virginia, said in the statement. “This cycle, which is driven by an almost nonexistent sunlight is directly comparable to the hydrological cycle of the earth.”
New Horizons continues its mission, which began in 2006, when he left the earth. This time, is already heading for another object of the Kuiper Belt, named 2014 MU69 , which will show us some more of that cold and distant region. But this meeting is scheduled for January 2019.
For now, stay with the dwarf planet and its geological life that unites us. “In this respect, Pluto is surprisingly like Earth,” says Alan Stern. “And no one predicted this.”
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