Uploaded July 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The first ever up-close images of Pluto don't show craters, they show mountains! This is Pluto in a Minute.
So this was actually a bit of a surprise to the science team. They expected to find craters but instead we found mountains! But these mountains on Pluto aren't exactly Earthly. On Pluto, these mountains are made of water ice.
So one important thing to keep in mind with this discovery is that Pluto is extremely cold! The average global temperature is 40 degrees Kelvin, which is roughly minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit. At temperatures that cold, ice behaves like a rock, and can actually hold on to the topography and texture that we see on rocks on Earth.
But what about the other data that says Pluto's surface is largely made of methane and nitrogen? Well the team concludes that there must be a thin film, or thick in some areas, of nitrogen and methane frozen as deposits covering this water ice.
If you think these images of the mountains on Pluto are phenomenal, just wait until the team gets even more data in the months to come. It's only going to get better from here. But in the meantime, for more information on Pluto check out the New Horizons websites, tweet your questions and your comments on the amazing mountain picture using the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course, come back here tomorrow for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
The first ever up-close images of Pluto don't show craters, they show mountains! This is Pluto in a Minute.
So this was actually a bit of a surprise to the science team. They expected to find craters but instead we found mountains! But these mountains on Pluto aren't exactly Earthly. On Pluto, these mountains are made of water ice.
So one important thing to keep in mind with this discovery is that Pluto is extremely cold! The average global temperature is 40 degrees Kelvin, which is roughly minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit. At temperatures that cold, ice behaves like a rock, and can actually hold on to the topography and texture that we see on rocks on Earth.
But what about the other data that says Pluto's surface is largely made of methane and nitrogen? Well the team concludes that there must be a thin film, or thick in some areas, of nitrogen and methane frozen as deposits covering this water ice.
If you think these images of the mountains on Pluto are phenomenal, just wait until the team gets even more data in the months to come. It's only going to get better from here. But in the meantime, for more information on Pluto check out the New Horizons websites, tweet your questions and your comments on the amazing mountain picture using the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course, come back here tomorrow for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
