PIA19947: Closer Look: Majestic Mountains and Frozen Plains 
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</p><p>Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto" class="extiw" title="w:Pluto">Pluto</a> on July 14, 2015, NASA's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons" class="extiw" title="w:New Horizons">New Horizons</a> spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured a near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon. The smooth expanse of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_Planitia" class="extiw" title="w:Sputnik Planitia">Sputnik Planitia</a> (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzing_Montes" class="extiw" title="w:Tenzing Montes">Tenzing Montes</a> in the foreground and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Montes" class="extiw" title="w:Hillary Montes">Hillary Montes</a> on the skyline. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Pluto" class="extiw" title="w:Atmosphere of Pluto">Pluto's tenuous but distended atmosphere</a>. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 230 miles (380 kilometers) across.
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The Johns Hopkins University <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_Physics_Laboratory" class="extiw" title="w:Applied Physics Laboratory">Applied Physics Laboratory</a> in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
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