See pic: Pluto`s Pattern of Pits

New Delhi: US space agency NASA recently released a picture of Pluto's surface, which has been zoomed in to get a clear view.

The image was taken by New Horizons spacecraft shortly before closest approach to Pluto on July 14 this year resolves details as small as 250 metres.

It is the highest resolution images ever obtained of the intricate pattern of “pits” across a section of Pluto’s prominent heart-shaped region, named Tombaugh Regio.

It is also part of a sequence taken by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft passed within 9,550 miles (15,400 kilometers) of Pluto's surface, just 13 minutes before the time of closest approach.

Scientists believe these mysterious indentations may have formed through a combination of ice fracturing and evaporation.

The large ring-like structure near the bottom right of the magnified view and the smaller one near the bottom left may be remnant craters.

The upper-left quadrant of the image shows the border between the relatively smooth Sputnik Planum ice sheet and the pitted area, with a series of hills forming slightly inside the unusual “shoreline.”