Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2021 January 15

                            A Plutonian Landscape
       Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research
                                  Institute

   Explanation: This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy
   plains stretches toward the horizon on a small, distant world. It was
   captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons
   looked back toward Pluto, 15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest
   approach on July 14. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene
   follows rugged mountains formally known as Norgay Montes from
   foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to
   smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere
   are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar
   appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and
   carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters
   (11,000 feet). That's comparable in height to the majestic mountains of
   planet Earth. The Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles)
   across.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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