A new close-up image of a region near Pluto’s equator reveals a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 3,500m (11,000ft) above the surface of the icy body, in a picture released by Nasa in Laurel, Maryland, yesterday. A US spacecraft sailed past the tiny planet Pluto in the distant reaches of the solar system on Tuesday, capping a journey of 4.88bn km that began nine and a half years ago. Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft passed by the ice-and-rock planetoid and its entourage of five moons. The event culminated an initiative to survey the solar system that the space agency embarked upon more than 50 years ago.
