New Horizons: Second Mountain Range Discovered In Pluto’s Heart
Ever since the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, or LORRI, did its recent Pluto fly-by, new discoveries have been made by the astronomers at New Horizons. The latest is a newly discovered mountain range, comparable to peaks in the U.S. Appalachian range.
These frozen peaks were found close to the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region) and lie between the icy plains and the darker, heavily cratered terrain.
The image was photographed on July 14, 2015 from 48,000 miles away from Pluto and sent to Earth on July 20. In the image, features as small as 0.5 miles across are clearly visible.
The newly-found mountains are estimated to be around 0.5- to 1-mile high, approximately the same height at the U.S. Appalachian Mountains, while the Norgay Montes (Norgay Mountains) first discovered on Pluto are closer to the height of the taller Rocky Mountains.
The new range of peaks are located around 68 miles northwest of Norgay Montes within Pluto’s heart in what has been called the Sputnik Planum (or Sputnik Plain).
Another mountain range has been discovered on Pluto’s “heart” http://t.co/GpqioC3ahf pic.twitter.com/VB6eO1rGAE
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 23, 2015
On the New Horizons website, Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics, and Imaging team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California is quoted as saying, “There is a pronounced difference in texture between the younger frozen plains to the east and the dark heavily-cratered terrain to the west.”
“There’s a complex interaction going on between the bright and the dark materials that we’re still trying to understand.”
According to the astronomers, Sputnik Planum is believed to be relatively young in geological terms. They date it at possibly less than 100 million years old. However, the darker region most probably dates back billions of years.
Some people, including astronomers, have joked that it might be possible to ski on Pluto due to the discovery of snow there. However, team member Fran Bagenal said no, it wouldn’t be a good place to ski because the snow would be far too hard-packed.
Now with the latest news of a second mountain range in Pluto’s heart, other daredevils might just start planning a mountain climbing vacation on our newly-revealed neighbor. Of course with the problems of distance and atmosphere to cope with, mountaineering vacations are definitely not an option for now!
Vacation jokes aside, it seems the conspiracy theorists are at it again. According to a report on the Inquisitr they are trying to say that the New Horizons mission is entirely fake.
On a more serious note, the Inquisitr reports that new high-definition photos of Pluto and its moon, Charon, are now available.
[Images: NASA/JHUAPL/SWR]
