NewScientist (26 March 2016) covers some more of Pluto’s grandeur:
Pluto’s bedrock is water ice, a substance as hard as granite at Pluto’s surface temperature of -240 °C. On the north-western flank of Sputnik Planum this ice-rock forms the jumbled peaks of the al-Idrisi range.
These kilometre-high mountains are possibly floating on denser nitrogen ice below – or may once have floated, only to become beached. “It looks like you took a surface, cracked it up, and shoved the pieces up into the corner of Sputnik Planum,” says Umurhan. What could have done that is a mystery.
Four more wondrous photos and topics covered by NewScientist here.
