New photos from the New Horizons: icy canyons Pluto

Scientists have a new batch of images from the New Horizons probe (data transfer will continue for several months, because of the large amount of stored information and the narrow channel of communication). At this time, the unit sent pictures icy canyons north pole of Pluto. They are in the region, which is called the region of Lowell, and placed vertically.

Canyons are quite large - the width of the largest of them reaching around 75 kilometers (marked in yellow on the bottom image), this canyon is located at the north pole. Its depth is about 4 kilometers. Besides him, there are three smaller size of the canyon (marked in green), the width of which is about 10 kilometers. The youngest is the widest canyon. Blow the other three walls of canyons are much older than the young "relative" clear the wall. Right in the middle there is a large canyon valley (highlighted in blue).

Red color asymmetrical formation of the pit. The width of the biggest "hole" is 70 km, depth - 4 kilometers.

The colors of the surface (shown in the extended range of colors) are unusual for Pluto. High areas are painted in a distinctive yellow color. Yellowish terraces gradually reduced, and moving smoothly into the lower valley, with a bluish color. Thanks to the infrared camera was able to understand the structure of ice. Most of the ice - is methane. Less - nitrogen.



Photo: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

This picture was obtained tool Ralph / Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). Image resolution of about 680 meters per pixel. The lower edge of the planetoid in the photograph is the actual size of 1,200 kilometers. Take a picture from a distance of about 33900 from the surface of Pluto, for 45 minutes before the closest approach of the probe to the planetoid.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/271714/