A synthetic perspective image of Pluto based on high-resolution imagery that shows that dark \"Cthulhu\" region at the bottom along with the large icy plains of the Sputnik Planum.
(credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(02 of07)
Open Image Modal
An image of Pluto showing the icy plain being called the Sputnik Planum. (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(03 of07)
Open Image Modal
This image of Pluto from New Horizons shows what NASA says is \"a large region of jumbled, broken terrain on the northwestern edge of the vast, icy plain informally called Sputnik Planum, to the right.\" (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(04 of07)
Open Image Modal
This NASA image of Pluto from New Horizons shows what may be dunes toward the center along with what NASA describes as \"dark, ancient heavily cratered terrain\" and \"bright, smooth geologically young terrain\" (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(05 of07)
Open Image Modal
An image of Pluto processed in two ways to highlight its haze. NASA says the image \"shows how Plutoâs bright, high-altitude atmospheric haze produces a twilight that softly illuminates the surface before sunrise and after sunset, allowing the sensitive cameras on New Horizons to see details in nighttime regions that would otherwise be invisible.\" (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(06 of07)
Open Image Modal
Two images showing Pluto\'s haze layers. NASA says: \" The left version has had only minor processing, while the right version has been specially processed to reveal a large number of discrete haze layers in the atmosphere. In the left version, faint surface details on the narrow sunlit crescent are seen through the haze in the upper right of Pluto\'s disk, and subtle parallel streaks in the haze may be crepuscular rays- shadows cast on the haze by topography such as mountain ranges on Pluto, similar to the rays sometimes seen in the sky after the sun sets behind mountains on Earth.\"
(credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(07 of07)
Open Image Modal
Pluto\'s largest moon Charon, taken by NASAâs New Horizons spacecraft 10 hours before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 290,000 miles. NASA says the small moon \"displays a surprisingly complex geological history, including tectonic fracturing; relatively smooth, fractured plains in the lower right; several enigmatic mountains surrounded by sunken terrain features on the right side; and heavily cratered regions in the center and upper left portion of the disk.\" (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)