MIAMI: NASA craft has discovered heart image on Pluto’s rusty red surface. The dwarf planet is dotted with bright points which may be ice caps and a mysterious dark shape nicknamed ‘The Whale.’
Scientists are seeing all this for the first time as a NASA spacecraft, called New Horizons, hurtles toward the distant celestial body on its way toward a historic flyby on July 14.
Scientists expect those mysteries to be solved in coming days as the spacecraft closes to Pluto, once considered the farthest planet in the solar system before it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
“Very soon we are going to go by Pluto and get the actual goods,” said Joe Peterson, a science operations leader for the New Horizons mission.
The closest flyby is scheduled for July 14 at 7:50 am (1150 GMT), when New Horizons passes within 6,200 miles of Pluto.
