After sharing several stunning photos of never-before-seen views of Pluto, NASA finally released the scientific findings from the New Horizons spacecraft's flyby.
Published in the journal Science, the new study details a wide variety of terrains and complex geology that does not seem to fit the profile of such a distant dwarf planet. Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator, served as the study's lead author.
"The Pluto system is much more complex than I had expected. Pluto itself displays (such a diverse) range of geological landforms that it is unprecedented in the Solar System," he told BBC News. "It certainly rivals the Earth and Mars, perhaps even occupies the number one spot for complexity of all the planets in the Solar System."
Pluto was literally the last frontier for NASA within the solar system and now mission managers are turning their attention to what might lie beyond the now-less-mysterious dwarf planet.
"The New Horizons mission completes our initial reconnaissance of the solar system, giving humanity our first look at this fascinating world and its system of moons," Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a press release. "New Horizons is not only writing the textbook on the Pluto system, it's serving to inspire current and future generations to keep exploring-to keep searching for what's beyond the next hill."
Pluto surprised mission managers by being surprisingly active for such a small, distant world and some of that activity was quite recent. Pluto displayed surface ice rich in water, as well as a blue, hazy atmosphere.
"The Pluto system surprised us in many ways, most notably teaching us that small planets can remain active billions of years after their formation," Stern said in the release. "We were also taught important lessons by the degree of geological complexity that both Pluto and its large moon Charon display."
