Today, July 9 (13:42)
After more than 9 years of space travel New Horizons spacecraft launched the sequence of observations, which will be conducted during next week’s trip around the dwarf planet Pluto. Yesterday, NASA scientists received the latest, most accurate to date picture of the mission. On its surface you can see a dark area that has already been informally called the Whale and clear, that with a little imagination like … heart.
The picture was taken on July 7 at a distance of about 8,000,000 km. It shows the dwarf planet’s surface from the side, over which New Horizons spacecraft will be at the time of closest approach. Pictures taken at this time, July 14, with just 12.5 thousand kilometers will show an area of approximately 500 times better resolution.
For now, astronomers see this side of Pluto’s three different color areas dark in the area the equator, heart-shaped clear on the left and intermediate in color, in the region of the pole. “Heart” is at the same diameter of about 2,000 km.
Pluto from the heart “on hand” liked very much 
Article from category: Science
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