Photo: REUTERS 2015
The US space agency NASA has unveiled the first images of the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. Photos taken from the station New Horizons, were demonstrated during a press conference NASA.
In the obtained images show that Pluto is a mountain height of more than 3.5 thous. M, whose age, according to scientists, of the order of 100 million years. Furthermore, there craters depth of one of them is 9.6 km. NASA scientists said that Pluto’s surface is one of the youngest in the solar system.
Scientists figure out how on Pluto formed a mountain landscape, as geological processes on the dwarf planet is not to be caused by the gravitational influence of a larger celestial bodies .
The surface of Charon, noted in NASA, young and diverse. Participants of the research project surprised by the absence of craters, but the photographs were sealed deep canyons from 7 to 9 km. Also on the moon’s surface were detected faults length of about one thousand. Km – probably the result of geological processes, the report said.
New Horizons – interplanetary station NASA, which was launched in 2006. It is designed for the study of Pluto and its moon Charon.
The mission of the unit is designed for 15-17 years. It is assumed that, flying past Pluto, New Horizons will study some objects in the Kuiper belt.
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