Skip to content

Pluto’s north pole

Pluto’s north pole, imaged in 2015, is covered in methane ice and pockmarks.
Pluto’s north pole, imaged in 2015, is covered in methane ice and pockmarks. Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

When New Horizons arrived at Pluto in 2015, it took high-quality images of the dwarf planet’s surface. That included shots of Pluto’s north pole, shown in this enhanced-color image. The wide canyons may suggest some amount of ancient tectonic activity. The image was taken when the probe was just over 21,000 miles from the dwarf planet.

The region also has a number of weird pits. According to a NASA release published along with the image, the pits—which are as wide as 45 miles across and 2.5 miles deep—may have been caused by subsurface ice melt, which collapsed the ground above.

Related Articles