Los humanos despejan más incognitas sobre Plutón

This photo obtained from NASA July 17, 2015 shows the latest data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, a new close-up image of Pluto revealing a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains, in the center-left of the heart feature, informally named “Tombaugh Regio” (Tombaugh Region) after Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. “This terrain is not easy to explain,” said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “The discovery of vast, craterless, very young plains on Pluto exceeds all pre-flyby expectations.” The surface appears to be divided into irregularly shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs, some of which contain darker materials. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The blocky appearance of some features is due to compression of the image. AFP PHOTO/NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/HANDOUT = RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: "AFP PHOTO HANDOUT-NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI"/ NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS=