The latest image of Pluto and its moon Charon, from 9 July (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
We鈥檙e nearly there. This is the latest view of Pluto and Charon from NASA鈥檚 New Horizons probe, taken from about 6 million kilometres away on Wednesday.
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In just under four days鈥� time, New Horizons will hurtle past the dwarf planet and its moon at nearly 14 kilometres per second, gathering as much data as it can before it shoots past on its way out of the solar system.
It has been a decade-long journey. There鈥檚 no chance of stopping and no room for error. This is it.
Pluto on 9 July. Most of the bright features around Pluto鈥檚 edge are a result of image processing, but the bright sliver below the dark 鈥渨hale,鈥� an elongated dark feature at the equator, is real (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
The images from Pluto have already wowed scientists and the public alike. The New Horizons team have identified surface features , along with a (see below). The pictures taken next Tuesday will reveal them, and the rest of Pluto, in hundreds of times greater detail, though these won鈥檛 be beamed back to Earth until later in the week.
Pluto on 8 July. This view is centered roughly on the area that will be seen close-up during the closest approach on 14 July. The large heart-shaped bright area measures some 2000 kilometres across. Above this is a polar region that is intermediate in brightness (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
But it鈥檚 not just about the holiday snaps. All seven of New Horizons鈥� instruments will be scanning Pluto and Charon, along with the smaller moons. The probe will study Pluto鈥檚 atmosphere and look for signs of one around Charon 鈥� it鈥檚 possible the two even share an atmosphere.
It will map the temperatures across the dwarf planet鈥檚 surface, and look for frozen water and clouds. And it will try to figure out why these two small worlds, so close together in the blackness of space, appear to be so different 鈥� one made from reddish rock; the other, half rock and half ice.
There are dangers. It鈥檚 possible, but unlikely, that New Horizons could collide with a cloud of dust thrown up by impacts on Pluto鈥檚 moon. The craft is travelling so fast that hitting even small particles could destroy it, putting an end to the mission.
NASA has already lived through one heart-stopping hiccup when the probe momentarily dropped out of contact last weekend, though mission scientists are confident this won鈥檛 happen again.
New 女生小视频 will be live-blogging the historic encounter from mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. Join us from Monday afternoon for the latest from Pluto (or follow us .)
We can鈥檛 wait!
