New Horizons: Pluto

[PortalHunter]

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While Sputnik Planum is believed to be relatively young in geological terms – perhaps less than 100 million years old - the darker region probably dates back billions of years. Moore notes that the bright, sediment-like material appears to be filling in old craters (for example, the bright circular feature to the lower left of center).

This other mountain range (still in the Tombaugh Region, but located a bit southwest of the last mountain image) is around 1km ~ 1.5km tall, with NASA comparing them to the USA's Appalachian Mountains for size.

Goodness, that image compression is terrible. It'll take a while to send ten years' worth of data... I'm glad we're getting previews.



Nix is to the left, Hydra to the right.

Hydra sure has grown. The 15px x 11px -wide image was exciting enough.

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Images of Pluto’s most recently discovered moons, Styx and Kerberos, are expected to be transmitted to Earth no later than mid-October.