New Horizons spots snowcapped mountain range on Pluto

PanARMENIAN.Net - Interplanetary space probe New Horizons has spotted a new mountain range on Pluto, Engadget reports.

The frosty-looking peaks are located in the south east of a region known as Cthulhu, and stretch out over 260 miles in length.

The images were originally taken during New Horizon's closest fly-by point back in June last year. The images were taken from about 21,000 miles away, and have a resolution of about 680 meters per pixel. The purple image on the right is a composite of data from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera on New Horizons, and shows the distribution of methane. As it almost exactly matches with the areas shown in white on the enhanced color image, scientists believe that on Pluto, methane acts like water in Earth's atmosphere, condensing into frost at altitude.