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NASA released this incredibly clear image of Pluto just minutes before its spacecraft, New Horizons, flew by Pluto for the first time in history. The flyby marked the first time humanity has ever visited Pluto.
Here is one of the last photos that New Horizons took before its historic flyby, and it's the best view of Pluto we've ever seen:
"[It] is approximately 1,000 times better than we could do even with the biggest and baddest Hubble Space telescope at Earth," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, at a NASA briefing on Tuesday.
Scientists still are not sure what is responsible for the light and dark regions that are now clearly visible on Pluto's surface, but they hope to answer that mystery within the coming months as data from New Horizons pours in.
"You can see regions of various kinds of brightness," Stern said. "What we know is that on the surface, there is the history of impacts, and we [also] see a history of surface activity." For example, there's evidence that it snows on Pluto!
Read more:
First high-resolution image of Pluto's surface - Business Insider
Here is one of the last photos that New Horizons took before its historic flyby, and it's the best view of Pluto we've ever seen:
"[It] is approximately 1,000 times better than we could do even with the biggest and baddest Hubble Space telescope at Earth," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, at a NASA briefing on Tuesday.
Scientists still are not sure what is responsible for the light and dark regions that are now clearly visible on Pluto's surface, but they hope to answer that mystery within the coming months as data from New Horizons pours in.
"You can see regions of various kinds of brightness," Stern said. "What we know is that on the surface, there is the history of impacts, and we [also] see a history of surface activity." For example, there's evidence that it snows on Pluto!
Read more:
First high-resolution image of Pluto's surface - Business Insider