NASA has released high-resolution images it described as "the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades".
The images were taken by the agency's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew past the dwarf planet in July.
"These new images give us a breathtaking, super-high resolution window into Pluto's geology," said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern.
"Nothing of this quality was available for Venus or Mars until decades after their first flybys; yet at Pluto we're there already - down among the craters, mountains and ice fields - less than five months after flyby!" he added.
"The science we can do with these images is simply unbelievable."
The images show a mix of mountainous terrain, craters and icy plains, NASA said.
They were taken about 15 minutes from New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto.
Previous images from the historic flyby revealed icy mountains, streams of frozen nitrogen and layers of haze around the icy planet.
Scientists said the series of images have showed an even more diverse landscape than they had previously imagined.
The New Horizons craft travelled more than three billion miles over nine-and-a-half years to reach the Pluto system.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét