We are in a great era of space explo­ration. This mag­nif­i­cent pho­to of Plu­to (colour-enhanced, but oth­er­wise a true visu­al image) was tak­en by the New Hori­zons probe, which is now more than six bil­lion kms from Earth. New Hori­zons, launched in 2006, is enter­ing the vast out­er regions of our solar sys­tem, which we are dis­cov­er­ing is far big­ger and more com­plex than was ever imag­ined. The heart-shaped plain called Sput­nik Plani­tia is an ocean of nitro­gen ice, which is semi-flu­id and shows dynam­ic fea­tures sim­i­lar to those that occur in polar pack-ice on Earth. Adja­cent to it is a moun­tain­ous region charm­ing­ly named Cthul­hu Mac­u­la, which seems to be coloured by hydro­car­bon tars.