Alan Stern, chief scientist on NASA’s New Horizons mission, said Wednesday he had an emotional “meet Pluto moment” when new imagery from the faraway space probe arrived on Earth showing the mysterious world in more detail than ever before seen by human eyes.
Barreling toward a July 14 flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned its first color image of the distant world and its moon Charon, whetting the appetites of scientists as the probe prepares to begin taking the best-ever photos of the Pluto system beginning next month.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft fine-tuned its path toward Pluto on Tuesday, firing its rocket thrusters for 93 seconds to aim for a fleeting flyby of the distant dwarf planet July 14.
Less than six months from a historic close-up of Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft has glimpsed its distant target at a range of 126 million miles, and better pictures are coming.
Pluto is in the sights of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which started collecting around-the-clock science data Thursday as it speeds toward the first close encounter with the distant world in July.