The spacecraft sent by NASA to explore the distant Pluto captured, on July 14 (although the image did not reach Earth until the 20th), from about 77,000 kilometers high an important photograph of its surface. In it you can see a new mountain range located on the southwestern margin of the Tombaugh Region, between the frozen and bright plains and several craters and darker areas.
Thanks to the long-range camera (known as LORRI), scientists are peering into and improving understanding of Plutonian geology.
Jeff Moore, coordinator of the “New Horizons Geology” and member of the Geophysics and Scanning Team at the Moffett Field Development Center (California) has explained that “there is an important difference between the texture between the younger frozen plains to the east. and the darkness of the terrain, full of craters, to the west. ” Furthermore, according to the scientist, “there is also a complex interaction between the bright and dark materials that we are still trying to understand.”
While the “Sputnik Plain” (Sputnik Planum) is believed to be relatively young in geological terms, (about 100 million years old) the darkest region probably dates back to billions of years old.
Specifically, the new mountain range would be found to the west of a region located in the heart of the planet and called “Sputnik Plain”. According to estimates by NASA scientists, these valleys extend about 100 kilometers northwest of the Norgay Mountains and the height of the peaks would be between a kilometer and a kilometer and a half. That is, approximately the same height as the Appalachian Mountains, in the United States
