NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this stunning image of Pluto just minutes after its closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015. At the time of shooting, the Sun was behind Pluto, so the photo shows rays that illuminate the haze in the atmosphere of the celestial body. At the top of the image are the Ice Plains known as the Sputnik Valley and Mount Norgay.
By studying backlit images, scientists are gaining new data on Pluto's surface. The above image was taken from a distance of 21,550 kilometers, 19 minutes after New Horizons approached the dwarf planet at a minimum distance. The image resolution is 430 meters per pixel. Recall that Pluto's diameter is 2374 kilometers.
The inset in the upper right corner of the photo shows an enlarged sector of Pluto with a curious light formation (near the center of the image). Given the scale of the picture, the length of the mysterious object should be tens of kilometers. Scientists suggest that a cloud was caught in the lens of New Horizons, hovering in Pluto's atmosphere at low altitude. According to existing models, methane clouds can appear in the gas envelope of a dwarf planet.
The inset in the lower right corner shows details of Pluto's night side. Wide valleys and sharp peaks up to 5 kilometers high can be discerned in the image. Since the image was taken at a closer distance, scientists were able to extract more information from it than from photographs taken before closest approach. Thanks to this image, NASA specialists got a detailed idea of the relief of Pluto, which can be observed from a convenient angle only at dusk. The section of the dwarf planet that fell into this insert is 750 kilometers wide.
ALEX KUDRIN
