New Horizons is still 70 - million mile ( 113 - million kilometre ) from Pluto , but the spacecraft starting to see some Earth’s surface features on the dwarf planet , including a possible ice pileus at its celestial pole .
Earlier this month , New Horizons beamed backthe first true - color image of Pluto . Now , the spacecraft ’s onboard equipment is beginning to break up actual surface feature — and as expected , they appear to be quite complex .
https://gizmodo.com/our-first-glimpse-of-pluto-and-charon-in-color-1698050919
The smart splotch circled on the image below is causing a lot of excitement among NASA ’s New Horizon ’s team . It ’s too other to distinguish , but it could be declarative of nitrogen ice on the surface — a Plutonian open feature proposed as far back as 1994 . The image was captured using the telescopic Long - Range Reconnaissance Imager ( LORRI ) on New Horizons .
“ As we set about the Pluto organisation we are get going to see intriguing lineament such as a brilliant realm near Pluto ’s visible pole , starting the great scientific adventure to understand this enigmatic heavenly object , ” noted John Grunsfeld , associate executive for NASA ’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington , in astatement . “ As we get closer , the turmoil is building in our quest to execute the mysteries of Pluto using data from New Horizons . ”
Charon is also visible in the image , but in the coming week and calendar month , the LORRI camera should start to pick up some of Pluto ’s other four moons .
[ NASA ]
Credits : NASA / JHU - APL / SwRI
NASANew HorizonsPlutoScienceSpace
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