Wright Mons in colour. This composite image of a possible ice volcano on Pluto includes pictures taken by the New Horizons spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on 14 July 2015, from a range of about 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometres), showing features as small as 1,500 feet (450 metres) across. Sprinkled across the LORRI mosaic is enhanced colour data from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), from a range of 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometres) and at a resolution of about 2,100 feet (650 metres) per pixel. The entire scene is 140 miles (230 kilometres) across. Image credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission have assembled this highest-resolution colour view of one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015.
This feature, known as Wright Mons, was informally named by the New Horizons team in honour of the Wright brothers. At about 90 miles (150 kilometres) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) high, this feature is enormous. If it is in fact a volcano, as suspected, it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system.
Mission scientists are intrigued by the sparse distribution of red material in the image and wonder why it is not more widespread. Also perplexing is that there is only one identified impact crater on Wright Mons itself, telling scientists that the surface (as well as some of the crust underneath) was created relatively recently. This is turn may indicate that Wright Mons was volcanically active late in Pluto’s history.Image credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
On July 14th, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Pluto, offering the first close-up look at that small, distant world. You can help decide what names will be used on subsequent maps of the dwarf planet and its largest moon, Charon, as the SETI Institute announces the launch of its “Our Pluto” campaign.
Scientists have determined that comets produce X-ray emission when particles in the solar wind strike the comet’s atmosphere. Recently, astronomers announced the results of a study using data collected with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory of two comets — C/2012 S1 ISON and C/2011 S4 PanSTARRS — when both were relatively close to Earth.
Take a look at a sneak peak of Pluto taken Monday at a range of 766,000 kilometre (476,000 miles), about 16 hours before New Horizons’ closest approach.
