Image Source: USA TODAY
On September 10th, NASA released this sharp, close-up photo of Pluto, captured by the New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July. Earlier this summer, NASA released another stunning image of the dwarf planet, which was then the most detailed photo of Pluto the world had ever seen.
This new high-resolution image, which captures an expanse approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) across and was taken from a perspective above Pluto’s equatorial area, demonstrates the planet’s landscape may be more complex than we thought.
It will take NASA a year to transfer all of the photos and data from the spacecraft, which leaves many wondering what other surprises Pluto has in store for us.
“Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we’ve seen in the solar system,” said Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, during an interview. “If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there,” he added.
By Gabrielle Kwarteng | All That Is Interesting
