The Jagged Shores of Pluto’s Highlands
June 9, 2016
| Credit | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute |
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| PIA Number | PIA20732 |
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This enhanced color view from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zooms in on the southeastern portion of Pluto's great ice plains, where at lower right the plains border rugged, dark highlands informally named Krun Macula.
Krun Macula -- Krun is the lord of the underworld in the Mandaean religion, and a macula is a dark feature on a planetary surface -- is believed to get its dark red color from tholins, complex molecules found across Pluto. Krun Macula rises 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) above the surrounding plain -- informally named Sputnik Planum -- and is scarred by clusters of connected, roughly circular pits that typically reach between 5 and 8 miles (8 and 13 kilometers) across, and up to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) deep.
