The surface feature, containing several snakeskin-like structures, has been informally named "Tartarus Dorsa," after a region of the underworld in Greek mythology.
"The evidence says no one's out there," said world-renowned NASA scientist William Borucki.
"If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top," New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern said in a statement released Thursday.
After completing a historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto last month, the New Horizons spacecraft is now headed to the dark and icy Kuiper Belt.
Each participant will have a small room containing a sleeping cot and desk.
American astronauts drink recycled urine while aboard the International Space Station, but the Russian crews, who also inhabit the station, do not.
Public interest in the Pluto fly-by earlier this year has NASA mulling new plans.
It was a static fire test mimicking an actual launch, firing 512,000 pounds of thrust for 535 seconds.
The incoming ozone pollution from China is hindering the attempts the country has been making to cut ozone emissions in recent years.
Leftover lettuce will be repackaged and sent to Earth for further analysis.
"Tomorrow we'll eat the anticipated veggie harvest," International Space Station crew member Scott Kelly tweeted, in anticipation of the feast.
Scientists expect the “Veggie” technology to be a key source of food for crew members during long-haul space missions.
Scientists at CERN are testing a superconductor-based magnetic shielding technology to protect astronauts from radiation during deep space missions.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden accused Congress of failing to fund its commercial crew program, which would have made the space agency self-reliant.
The 21-foot robotic arm travels up and down a 40-foot track, shooting carbon fibers out of 16 spools that are heated as they're released.
A total of 14 astronauts died in the Challenger and Columbia accidents.
NASA has released high-quality versions of the sounds carried by the "golden records" aboard the Voyager probes launched in 1977.
The space agency would used the drones to study weather patterns on gas planets, researchers say.
Dubbed Kepler-452b, the planet has had "substantial opportunity for life to arise," NASA said.
Scientists and astronomers have long believed that before mankind can undertake a voyage to Mars, another trip to the moon is imperative.
Space exploration is having quite the moment.
The docking of NASA's Apollo capsule and the Soviet Union's Soyuz spacecraft marked a historic detente between the two adversaries.