NASA reveals more Pluto and moon pix

This kind of geological variation – from Pluto’s ice mountains, to Charon’s relatively young surface – wasn’t thought possible before the New Horizons mission because of the cosmic bodies’ significant distance from the Sunday. A massive canyon runs across the surface of Charon, while its north pole has a reddish hue. Also illuminated by the setting sun are the dozen-plus layers of Pluto’s wisp-thin atmosphere. It provides new details to help the New Horizons team map Krun Macula (the prominent dark spot at the bottom of the image) and the complex terrain east and northeast of Tombaugh Regio.

New Horizons is now millions of miles past Pluto, speeding toward another object in the Kuiper Belt, but it will continue sending back data collected during its flyby of the dwarf planet for about the next year.

The image of Charon and its craters was taken on July 14, 2015 when New Horizons was 81,000 kilometres from Charon.

Alex Parker, one of the science team members who worked on the image said on Twitter, “The haze over Pluto’s dark limb were frustratingly run through with instrumental artifacts”.

The fuzzy area around the crescent is the dwarf planet’s atmosphere.

Organa crater doesn’t look much different than other Charon craters. As such, 2014 MU69 is believed to be similar to building blocks of Kuiper Belt planets such as Pluto. Those worlds will remain mysteries for future generations to investigate, according to NASA Director of Planetary Science Jim Green.

“This is a fantastic discovery”, Bill McKinnon, New Horizons scientist, said in the statement. “New Horizons is not only writing the textbook on the Pluto system, it’s serving to inspire current and future generations to keep exploring – to keep searching for what’s beyond the next hill”. “For most people, it’s best to sit back and enjoy the incredible images that New Horizons has taken”.

Space scientists managing the New Horizons spacecraft have caught sight of a crater on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon; and incidentally, the features of the newly discovered crater look very similar to those found on Pluto, a neighboring planet. That release was not available by press time.