New Horizon images of Pluto's strange icy plains suggests it's "possibly still being shaped by geologic processes"
According to Nasa, the geology of the planes suggests that the dwarf planet is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes.
The New Horizons spacecraft team revealed close-up photos of those plains Friday, three days after the historic flyby.
"I'm still having to remind myself to take deep breaths," said Nasa New Horizons co-investigator Jeffrey Moore. "The landscape is astoundingly amazing."
Spanning a couple hundred miles, the plains are located in the bright, heart-shaped area of Pluto.
Like the mountains unveiled Wednesday, the plains look to be a relatively young 100 million years old.
Scientists speculate internal heating - perhaps from volcanoes or geysers- might be responsible for these youthful-looking, crater-free regions.
The plains appear to include smooth hills and fields of small pits, indicating "Pluto has experienced a long and complex geological history".
With an estimated 1-2 % of New Horizons data back on Earth after the spacecraft's Pluto flyby, scientists expect many more discoveries to come.
"We are going to be seeing a lot more of this," said Allen Stern: "This is 400 pixels imagery and by next week we will have more than twice as much as the three frames that we've been already able to share by the end of today."