New Horizon, NASA’s spacecraft studying Pluto, has discovered a frozen plain on the dwarfed planet.
The plain is situated north of another recent discovery, the icy mountains of Pluto.
This terrain is not easy to explain. The discovery of vast, craterless, very young plains on Pluto exceeds all pre-flyby expectations.
— Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI), NASA’s Ames Research Center, California
The plain has been named ‘Sputnik Planum’ after the first ever artificial satellite sent out by Earth.
A close up of the plain shows dark streaks running through it’s surface.
These are aligned along the direction of the wind blowing, thus believed to be formed by it.
Kelly Scott is also tweeting some astounding pictures from the space.
He will be spending a year in the space as a part of NASA’s Pluto flyby mission.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)