In saying "goodbye" to Pluto, New Horizons snapped a photo of the dwarf planet backlit by the sun, capturing a hazy aspect of its atmosphere in the process.
According to NASA, New Horizons took the photo seven hours after making its closest encounter with Pluto. The image shows a distinct ring around Pluto, which mission managers say is a hazy film 80 miles off the dwarf planet's surface.
The discovery was surprising, since projections and models suggested Pluto's atmosphere would not be favorable to hazes any higher than 20 miles. What's more is the haze New Horizons captured apparently had two layers divided nearly down the middle.
"We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now - 10 days after closest approach - we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed," John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said in the release. "With flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling."
Also captured via the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) was a plain within the heart-shaped region on Pluto's surface where ice may still be actively flowing "in a manner similar to glaciers on Earth," NASA stated.
"At Pluto's temperatures of minus-390 degrees Fahrenheit, these ices can flow like a glacier," Bill McKinnon, deputy leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team at Washington University in St. Louis, said in the release. "In the southernmost region of the heart, adjacent to the dark equatorial region, it appears that ancient, heavily-cratered terrain has been invaded by much newer icy deposits."
