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A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto's Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. This image was acquired by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and sent back to Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible.
Pluto's icy mountains have company. NASA's New Horizons mission has discovered a new, apparently less lofty mountain range on the lower-left edge of Pluto's best known feature, the bright, heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region).
These newly-discovered frozen peaks are estimated to be one-half mile to one mile (1-1.5 kilometers) high, about the same height as the United States' Appalachian Mountains. The Norgay Montes (Norgay Mountains) discovered by New Horizons on July 15 more closely approximate the height of the taller Rocky Mountains.
The new range is just west of the region within Pluto's heart called Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain). The peaks lie some 68 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Norgay Montes.
This newest image further illustrates the remarkably well-defined topography along the western edge of Tombaugh Regio.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2015, @11:35AM
Indeed, an interesting question.
But where would the molten core come from?
- Pluto and and Charon are tidally locked, no tidal heating there. And no other big body around for tides either
- remnant heat from formation also sounds bloody unlikely, considering Pluto's size and the surface temperature of around 45K and a core composition thought to be water ice and rock
- the same for heat from a (recent?) impact. Anything with enough energy to heat up a dwarf planet will probably also smash it to pieces
So, IMVHO, anything not connected with asteroid impacts is out. My personal guess is that a) the mountains are formed by rather strange secondary impacts, caused by the fucked-up gravity potentials there (consider the huge moon close by) and b) perhaps the rate of external impacts is much slower - fir whatever reason - than we're currently thinking, making ancients-old plains look new
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2015, @08:27PM
My guess is that the repeated freezing and unfreezing cycle of the atmosphere due to Pluto's lopsided orbit mucks up the surface over time. However, that doesn't explain the two types of terrain, "new/light" and "old/dark", we seem to be seeing. A grand mystery: the fun of science.