it's been almost a year since the epic Pluto flyby of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, capturing the unprecedented views of the dwarf planet with high resolution images of its complex surface. Now, Pluto reveals its canyons, mountain ranges and hills of nitrogen ice in this newest series of photos.

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More specifically, NASA released this enhanced color image of the complex, alien surface of Pluto taken from three different observations last July, revealing the southeastern region of the great ice plains of Pluto that lies near the borders of its dark highlands, known as Krun Macula.

NASA scientists explain how this image is named after the lord of the underworld, Krun, that is originally taken from the ancient Mandaean religion where macula is named after a dark feature on the surface of the dwarf planet.

NASA describes this image as Krun Macula that stretches for about 1.5 miles above the surrounding plain known as Sputnik Planum, that is also pockmarked with bizarre clusters of rough circular pits that are measured between five to eight miles across and 1.5 miles deep into surface.

Sputnik Planum's boundaries are filled with these pits and deep valleys that can reach about 25 miles long and 12.5 miles wide, deep into the surface of the dwarf planet at two miles, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, where its pit floors are covered in nitrogen ice.

Mission scientists believe that these strange, deep pits were formed when the surface collapsed, however the original cause of this collapse is still unknown. These images are also the highest resolution images ever captured by New Horizons of the Pluto system.

Apart from Pluto's surface, New Horizons also obtained the first ever observations of its moon system, that includes Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.

TagsNASA New Horizons, Pluto, Pluto new horizons, krun macula, pluto surface, high resolution images pluto