Pluto goes multi-coloured in brilliant new image from New Horizons
Pluto has been the star of the solar system in the previous months with its incredible diversity of features being revealed by the New Horizons spacecraft of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A new, brilliantly coloured image was recently released highlighting the subtle colour differences among the regions of the dwarf planet.
The new image showing the colourful Pluto was captured by the New Horizons’ Ralph/MVIC colour camera. The image comes after the spacecraft passed about 22,000 miles from Pluto during its flyby in July.
However, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, noted that the colourful image is a false-coloured photo. The image was enhanced by researchers using the process called principal component to show the detailed regions of the planet.
Earlier observations of the New Horizons spacecraft have already revealed “weirder” geography of the dwarf planet. These include flattened, icy plains, deep craters, enormous floating mountains, assumed ice volcanoes and misbehaving merged moons.
Scientists believe that the enormous floating mountains on the surface of planet could have features that are more like icebergs than mountains on Earth. These mountains are potentially composed of water ice and are floating on a sea of nitrogen ice, according to Jeff Moore from NASA’s Ames Research Centre.
Besides those floating mountains, Pluto appears to have two possible ice volcanoes with similar structures with Earth’s volcanoes. However, the assumed volcanoes would potentially erupt with icy substances instead of molten rocks, compared to volcanoes on Earth, NASA reported.
The ice volcanoes were informally named by NASA experts as Wright Mons and Picard Mons. New Horizons spacecraft spotted the two enormous mountains at the southern area of the heart-shaped region on the surface of Pluto.
The New Horizons spacecraft is set to fly past the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 after its Pluto flyby mission. The 2014 MU69 is a small and cold target over billion miles away from the planet.
The spacecraft is expected to travel for about three years, and scientists are still expecting for more detailed observations of Pluto during its long journey, Space.com reported.
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