9 Things The New Horizon Probe Has Taught Us About Pluto

5. It Has Mountains

As more and more information is beamed back to Earth by the probe, we are able to study the surface in unprecedented detail. One of the first images to come back to us was a close up look at an area just under the heart containing an impressive range of mountains.

The image was taken from roughly 47,800 miles away on Tuesday morning and reveals the mountains to be a similar height to the American Rockies - around 11,000 feet - casting long shadows over a large flat area. The flat plains appear to be relatively young, perhaps indicating recent geological activity on Pluto.

A close up photograph of Charon also reveals a canyon up to six miles deep (six times that of the Grand Canyon) and a large dark patch that is being informally referred to as Mordor (into which one presumably does not simply walk).