NASA scientists have published new pictures of Pluto, made device "New Horizons" after 15 minutes after he came to the dwarf planet in July 2015.
The photos majestic views of the icy mountains, wide plains and low fog.Surprisingly Pluto in many ways very similar to Earth, and here there are processes like the water cycle.
Photos of Pluto in 2015
View Pluto at sunset July 14, 2015 shows a rocky mountain, reaching a height of 3.4 km and a smooth icy plain.
The mountains were named Norgay Montiz (Norgay Montes) and Hillary Montiz (Hillary Montes) in honor of climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgeya who first reached the summit of Everest.
"This picture makes you feel out there on Pluto, inspect the area," - said the researcher of the project "New Horizons" Dr.Alan Stern (Dr Alan Stern).
New pictures help give new information about the atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and valleys of Pluto.
For example, a picture taken from a distance of 17 000 km, helps to see the haze above the surface of Pluto.
The setting sun illuminates the mist or fog, which cuts through the shadows of a plurality of hills and mountains.
New Horizons: new images of Pluto
Scientists claim that the latest pictures indicate the presence of Pluto in the hydrological cycle, but with more "soft" and "exotic" ice, including nitrogen instead of water.
Low haze also indicates the regular change in the weather, as it happens in the world.
"Heart" Pluto: Plain Sputnik - the name of the smooth area in the form of light bulbs on the left.
Panorama also showed glaciers flowing back into the icy plains of the region. Similar flows are visible at the edges of the polar ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica.
Ice on the right side of the mountain flows down from the mountains to the plains of the satellite through the valley, which is indicated by the red arrows. The flow of ice highlighted with blue arrows.
It was a surprise to scientists, who did not expect to find a frozen liquid or frozen nitrogen in the harsh conditions of outer solar system.
This can be compared to the hydrological cycle on Earth where water evaporates from the oceans falls as snow and returns to the ocean through the ice flow.
"New Horizons" - a interplanetary spacecraft launched to study Pluto and other regions of our solar system. July 14, 2015 at 11:49 UT, he was flying at 12 500 km above the surface of Pluto, becoming the first who approached this dwarf planet.
No comments:
Post a Comment