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.
A speedy space probe barreled past Pluto for a one-shot flyby Tuesday, becoming the first spacecraft to ever visit the frozen, reddish world at the solar system’s distant frontier.
The science team of NASA’s New Horizons mission has produced an updated global map of dwarf planet Pluto that includes all resolved images of the surface acquired 7-14 July 2015, up to 400 metres/pixel resolution. Many additional images are expected in autumn 2015 and these will be used to complete the global map.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took this stunning image mere minutes after closest approach on 14 July 2015. Seen here, sunlight filters through and illuminates Pluto’s complex atmospheric haze layers over portions of the nitrogen ice plains informally named Sputnik Planum, as well as mountains of the informally named Norgay Montes.
