Pluto's Icy Mountains and Plains
Within minutes of its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon. The smooth expanse of the Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. The backlighting highlights the hazy layers of Pluto's atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) from Pluto. The landscape depicted is 230 miles (380 kilometers) across.
Size: 3734px × 2400px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 2015, astronomical, astronomy, atmosphere, body, bw, celestial, close, close-, deep, dwarf, exploration, heavenly, hillary, horizon, horizons, ice, icy, mission, montes, mountain, mountains, nasa, norgay, object, plain, plains, planet, planum, pluto, science, sky, solar, space, sputnik, surface, system, universe
