New Horizons mission shares more high-res Pluto images

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- NASA and the New Horizons mission team have shared new high-resolution, color-enhanced photos of Pluto.

The images are the last of the initial download splurge, as scientists will now focus on processing the data streaming in slowly but surely from the probe and as it continues to speed away from Earth. NASA will release more imagery and data in September.

The first shared image renders the icy dwarf planet in splendid colors. The image is the amalgamation of four photos snapped by the New Horizons probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). The resulting composite was then enhanced with color data captured by the spacecraft's Ralph instrument. The same process was used to produce a false (but still impressive) color shot.

At the tail end of the probe's flyby, as New Horizons left the dwarf planet and continued toward interstellar space, LORRI captured a goodbye photo of Pluto backlit by the sun -- a beautiful silhouette.

The New Horizons team also shared new close-ups on Friday, revealing ice flows discovered within Pluto's heart-shaped region, called Tombaugh Regio. Researchers hypothesized that Pluto might harbor dramatic geologic activity, but were surprised to confirm the presence of such impressive forces. The flowing of the exotic ices resembles the behavior of glaciers on Earth.

"We've only seen surfaces like this on active worlds like Earth and Mars," said mission co-investigator John Spencer, a researcher at San Antonio's Southwestern Research Institute. "I'm really smiling."

Along with the stunning new imagery, mission scientists announced they'd named Pluto's newly discovered mountains "Hillary Montes," or Hillary Mountains, after Everest-climber Sir Edmund Hillary. Hillary summited Earth's highest peak with Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

"For many years, we referred to Pluto as the Everest of planetary exploration," added Alan Stern, the mission's principle investigator. "It's fitting that the two climbers who first summited Earth's highest mountain, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, now have their names on this new Everest."