London - Revealed for the first time in all its glory, this is the icy face of Pluto – which was photographed close up for the first time by the space probe New Horizons.
The spacecraft’s nine-year mission reached its high point on Tuesday – taking the most vivid picture of the dwarf planet ever seen.
The colour of brass, copper and peach, the distant world 3 billion miles away from earth features a heart-shaped shadow at its centre.
The “heart” is believed to have been caused by a large impact and is filled with frozen gases from Pluto’s thin atmosphere – including nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide.
Taken from just 7 700 miles away, the high-quality picture took four hours to be beamed back to Earth.
Nasa scientists believe that even more impressive images of Pluto could be captured in days to come as the space probe closes in.
Discussing the majestic shot from the operation base at John Hopkins University in Maryland, mission manager Alice Bowman said: “To see Pluto be revealed just before our eyes, it’s just fantastic.” She said working on New Horizons was like having a child, and being simultaneously “nervous and proud” while you are waiting to hear back from them.
But there are still fears that the remainder of the £500-million mission could be brought to an end if the probe has any collisions with dangerous debris. Nasa’s planetary science director, Jim Green, said: “They’re confident the way is clear, but you know, we’re moving into the unknown. You never can tell.”
Thanks to New Horizons, Pluto is now confirmed to be the largest object in the Kuiper Belt, the third zone of the solar system after the inner rocky planets and the outer gaseous ones. Pluto is also about 50 miles bigger than previously thought – a total of 1 473 miles in diameter, or two-thirds the size of Earth’s moon.
The Nasa mission is expected to take 16 months to complete, with the project currently expected to continue until late autumn in 2016.
Daily Mail