CANADA: NASA says it has only just received the amazing pictures, which were taken by the New Horizons probe almost two months ago.
NASA has released new photos which show mountains, possible dunes and multiple layers of haze on the dwarf planet Pluto.
The images were taken by the New Horizons spacecraft as it swept past the distant body in July.
Scientists say they reveal an even more diverse landscape than they had previously imagined.
“If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top – but that’s what is actually there,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal scientist from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
In one picture, dark ancient craters border much younger icy plains. Dark ridges also are visible that some scientists believe might be dunes.
One outer solar system geologist, William McKinnon of Washington University in St Louis, said it would be “completely wild” if the ridges are dunes given Pluto’s thin atmosphere.
“Either Pluto had a thicker atmosphere in the past, or some process we haven’t figured out is at work. It’s a head-scratcher,” he said.
It is thought the jumble of mountains, on the other hand, may be huge blocks of ice floating in a softer, vast deposit of frozen nitrogen.
As well as geologic features, the images show the atmospheric haze surrounding Pluto has multiple layers.
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