NASA Scientists Pour Over New Pluto Pictures
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Pictures snapped Monday gave us our first clear look at Pluto, our solar system's most famous dwarf planet, thanks to New Horizons.
On Wednesday, we were treated to an even closer look.
Now we're able to see what it looks like on the surface, almost as though we're looking at Google Earth.
More pictures came in overnight. NASA scientists have been pouring over them finding out some fascinating information, for example in cosmic years, Pluto is practically a newborn.
"Just eyeballing it, we think it has to be probably less than a hundred million years old which is a small fraction of the 4 and half billion year age of the solar system," said John Spencer with NASA.
We've learned that icy surface is not flat.
"Mountains," said Spencer.
That heart-shaped area now has a name.
"We want to honor the discoverer of Pluto we care now calling this Tumbo Reggio," said Spencer.
CBS4's Ted Scouten watched the new pictures revealed with the engineers at Heico Aerospace in Hollywood. It was one of their sister companies that installed a chip similar to the one that made it possible for us to see these incredible views.
"This is a flash memory module. It's called a nand module," said Terry Clark with Heico.
"It's pride, pride of being part of this great, great event," said Alex De Guten with Heico.