Pluto’s Bright Heart and Charon’s Dark Spot Revealed in HD

NASA has released the latest batch of images of Pluto and its complex system of moons, revealing the dwarf planet’s heart in stunning detail. The white heart shape was Pluto’s most prominent feature as the New Horizons spacecraft was still millions of miles away, and for that reason astronomers have named it after the planet’s discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh. What’s more, the region has incredible and complex geology. “There are mountains in the Kuiper Belt,” New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern said at a 3 p.m. EDT press conference today. Astronomers expect these mountains are as much as 11,000 feet (3,300 meters) high. And those towering features are very likely made of water ice — a substance known to occupy Pluto’s interior but yet to be conclusively detected on the surface. And yet water is the only way to get these mountains, the team thinks. Stern said he submitted a paper ...