New NASA Photos Show Pluto's Surface In Eye-Popping Detail | HuffPost

These are the sharpest images yet of the dwarf planet.

By

Senior Science Editor, The Huffington Post

Craters and mountains and glaciers. Oh my!

New images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft offer the clearest, closest view yet of Pluto's stunning surface.

The photos were taken as the spacecraft made its closest approach to the dwarf planet in July, and were stored on New Horizons' digital recorders before being transmitted to the space agency here on Earth. NASA released the photos on Friday, and is preparing to receive another set of high-res images from the spacecraft in the next several days.

Just scroll down to see Pluto's surface like you've never seen it before.

"These new images give us a breathtaking, super-high resolution window into Pluto’s geology," Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizons mission, said in a statement. "Nothing of this quality was available for Venus or Mars until decades after their first flybys; yet at Pluto we’re there already -- down among the craters, mountains and ice fields -- less than five months after flyby! The science we can do with these images is simply unbelievable."

The images show Pluto's cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains. They were captured by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager aboard New Horizons from a distance of around 10,000 miles.

This highest-resolution image from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft shows great blocks of Pluto's water-ice surface that appear jammed together in the informally named al-Idrisi Mountains.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This image reveals new details of Pluto's rugged and icy cratered plains, including layering in the interior walls of craters.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This image shows how erosion and faulting have sculpted this portion of Pluto's icy crust into rugged badlands.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This mosaic of the highest-resolution images shows a 50-mile-wide strip of Pluto's terrain stretching across the al-Idrisi mountains.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

[RELATED: Pluto Has Blue Skies And Red Ice, NASA Says]

Also on HuffPost:

Pluto's Fascinating Geography

(01 of11)

This July 14, 2015, photo provided by NASA shows a synthetic perspective view of Pluto, based on the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASAâs New Horizons spacecraft. The new close-up images of Pluto reveal an even more diverse landscape than scientists imagined before New Horizons swept past Pluto in July. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(02 of11)

This image released by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, shows regions with exposed water ice highlighted in blue in this composite image taken with the New Horizons spacecraft's Ralph instrument. The image combines visible imagery from the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) with infrared spectroscopy from the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA). The scene is approximately 280 miles (450 kilometers) across. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(03 of11)

This July 14, 2015 photo released by NASA on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 shows the atmosphere and surface features of Pluto, lit from behind by the sun. It was made 15 minutes after the New Horizons' spacecraft's closest approach. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(04 of11)

This image released by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, shows the blue color of Plutoâs haze layer in this picture taken by the New Horizons spacecraft's Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturnâs moon Titan. This image was generated by software that combines information from blue, red and near-infrared images to replicate the color a human eye would perceive as closely as possible. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(05 of11)

This image released by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, shows Charon, in enhanced color captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. Massive canyons and fractures are clearly visible on Charon, which is more than half of Plutoâs size. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(06 of11)

This July 14, 2015 photo released by NASA on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 shows the atmosphere and surface features of Pluto, lit from behind by the sun. It was made 15 minutes after the New Horizons' spacecraft's closest approach. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(07 of11)

This July 14, 2015, photo provided by NASA shows a 220-mile (350-kilometer) wide view of Pluto taken from NASAâs New Horizons spacecraft. The new close-up images of Pluto reveal an even more diverse landscape than scientists imagined before New Horizons swept past Pluto in July. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(08 of11)

This image made available by NASA on Friday, July 24, 2015 shows a combination of images captured by the New Horizons spacecraft with enhanced colors to show differences in the composition and texture of Pluto's surface. The images were taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) away. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(09 of11)

This image was taken on July 14, 2015, by New Horizonsâ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) shows a newly discovered mountain range near the southwestern margin of Plutoâs Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. The image was received on Earth on July 20. (NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(10 of11)

This July 14, 2015 photo provided by NASA shows an image taken from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft showing a new close-up image from the heart-shaped feature on the surface of Pluto that reveals a vast, craterless plain. (NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(11 of11)

This photo taken Tuesday, July 14, 2015, at approximately 6:30 a.m. EDT, shows Pluto's largest moon Charon, left, with a captivating feature, a depression with a peak in the middle, shown in the upper left corner of the inset image at right. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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