The Tenzing Montes (formerly Norgay Montes) are icy mountains near the

Hillary Montes The Hillary Montes or (less officially, Hillary Mountains) are mountains that reach above the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. They are located northwest of Tenzing Montes in the southwest border area of Sputnik Planitia in the south of Tomb ...

that reach up to above the surface of the dwarf planet

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

, bordering the southwest region of

Sputnik Planitia Sputnik Planitia , originally Sputnik Planum, is a high-albedo ice-covered basin on Pluto, about in size, named after Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. It constitutes the western lobe of the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio. Sputnik Pl ...

in the south of

Tombaugh Regio Tombaugh Regio () is the largest bright surface feature of the dwarf planet Pluto. It is just north of the equator, to the northeast of Cthulhu Macula and to the northwest of Krun Macula, which are both dark features. Its western lobe, a -wide p ...

(or the part of Tombaugh Regio south of the equator). They are the highest mountain range on Pluto, and also the steepest, with a mean slope of 19.2 degrees.

Naming

The mountains, first viewed by the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft on 14 July 2015, and announced by NASA on 15 July 2015, are named after the

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

ese mountaineer

Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay (; ''tendzin norgyé''; perhaps 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two people known to reach the sum ...

, who, along with

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached t ...

, made the first successful ascent of the highest peak on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

(29 May 1953). The mountains were informally called ''Norgay Montes'' by the ''New Horizons'' team, but that name was later changed from ''Norgay'' to ''Tenzing''.In Nepali, the last name is given first, so ''Tenzing'' is the last name while ''Norgay'' is the first name. On 7 September 2017, the name ''Tenzing Montes'' was officially approved together with the names of

and twelve other nearby surface features.

Highest peaks

Several

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

s within Tenzing Montes reach elevations of more than 4 km above the surrounding terrain. The table below is based on Table 3 in. The Tenzing Montes rise up to high, about twice as high as the

. In comparison,

rises base-to-peak (though to an elevation of above sea level).''Mount Everest'' (1:50,000 scale map), prepared under the direction of

Bradford Washburn Henry Bradford Washburn Jr. (June 7, 1910 – January 10, 2007) was an American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939–1980, and from 1985 until his d ...

for the Boston Museum of Science, the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research, and the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

, 1991,

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References