This is the best photo of Pluto ever taken
Are you ready? Ok:
Yes, that's really the best photo we have of Pluto (after god of the underworld) and its moon, Charon (the boatman who ferries the souls of the dead).
Now, that might not seem impressive - but it was taken from 42 kilometres away by the New Horizons spacecraft. The ship was 4.7 kilometres from Earth when it took this photo - about 60% of the way to the former planet.
The cleaned-up and enhanced images show us some surface patterns on Pluto, which was only discovered in 1930 and has spent most of the time since as a dot.
Now, NASA scientists think they can see a bright spot that could be a polar ice cap.
New approach images from @NASANewHorizons show the many faces of #Pluto: http://t.co/v7IlV11QZu #PlutoFlyBy pic.twitter.com/HKO4AnuYYn
— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) June 11, 2015
"We can also see that every face of Pluto is different and that Pluto's northern hemisphere displays substantial dark terrains, though both Pluto's darkest and its brightest known terrain units are just south of, or on, its equator," said Alan Stern, the principal investigator on the New Horizons mission.
"Why this is so is an emerging puzzle."
New Horizons is only a few million kilometres from Pluto, and is due to reach the celestial body in a month, after a nine-year journey. As it gets closer and closer, those images will become even more refined.
Coupled with the Philae lander waking up and the progress with SpaceX programmes, it's a good year for space exploration.
READ NEXT:What can we expect now Philae has woken up?
