New photo of a back-lit Pluto reveals possible cloud on the dwarf planet
A newly-released image taken during New Horizons' flyby of Pluto shows the back lit dwarf planet in a detailed new light.
The photo, captured just minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach with Pluto on July 14, 2015, reveals the world's atmosphere illuminated by the rays of the distant sun nearly 4 billion miles away.
The high-resolution image may actually show a "low-lying cloud in Pluto's atmosphere," a first spotted on the dwarf planet, NASA said.
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"This cloud -- if that’s what it is -- is visible for the same reason the haze layers are so bright: illumination from the sunlight grazing Pluto’s surface at a low angle. Atmospheric models suggest that methane clouds can occasionally form in Pluto’s atmosphere," the space agency added in a statement.
NASA is excited about the possible cloud on Pluto because it shows the world is more dynamic than anyone initially gave it credit for. Before the New Horizons flyby, scientists thought Pluto would be an icy, cratered world, but its dynamic, hazy atmosphere is proof that the dwarf planet is a complex world.
This crescent view of the dwarf planet also gives scientists a tantalizing glimpse at the side of Pluto not seen by New Horizons during its close pass.
Hazes lofted into Pluto's atmosphere reveal valleys and even 3-mile-high mountaintops arching out from the shadowed terrain, NASA said.
New Horizons has sent images of a back-lit Pluto to Earth before, but this new view reveals even more than other photos of the planet in silhouette.
Another high peak stretching from the bright edge of Pluto is on stark display in this photo.
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Pluto appears to be a world filled with fascinating geology for scientists to pick apart.
The dwarf planet has peaks that stretch up to the height of the Rocky and Appalachian mountain ranges on Earth, but instead of being made of rock, Pluto's mountains are actually made of water-ice.
While it's not possible for ice to get naturally solid enough to support massive structures like mountains on Earth, Pluto's extremely cold temperature allows ice mountains to form on the surface of the world.
Pluto also plays host to at least one flat plain that seems to be extremely young in geological terms. The surface of that flat part of Pluto's heart-shaped feature is composed of nitrogen ice that moves slowly, reforming its surface and smoothing it out as it goes.
Scientists will continue to learn more from this photo of Pluto and others sent back to Earth from New Horizons.
It will take another month or two for the spacecraft to deliver all of the data it gathered during the flyby back to Earth due to the long downlink time and the amount of information it collected.
Explore the full-resolution image of Pluto's crescent directly through NASA.
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Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
