NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent in a new set of images of Pluto that have left scientists and astronomers stunned by their stark beauty.
The new images are spread out on a scene measuring 780 miles (1,250 kilometers) across and were taken by New Horizons' wide-angle Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14. The pictures of Pluto's crescent are more dramatic due to backlighting from the sun and offer an oblique look across the dwarf planet's landscapes, where the varied terrains and extended atmosphere are highlighted.
"We did not expect to find hints of a nitrogen-based glacial cycle on Pluto operating in the frigid conditions of the outer solar system. Driven by dim sunlight, this would be directly comparable to the hydrological cycle that feeds ice caps on Earth, where water is evaporated from the oceans, falls as snow, and returns to the seas through glacial flow. Pluto is surprisingly Earth-like in this regard, and no one predicted it," said Alan Howard, a member of the mission's Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, according to NASA.
