Historic NASA Mission Captures Images Of Pluto
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It took ten years to get there. A NASA space craft, the size of a baby grand piano, made a historic mission Tuesday morning as it flew by Pluto, three million miles away from earth.
Data retrieved by the probe is expected to unlock secrets of the solar system.
An image of Pluto captured by NASA's New Horizon's probe shows it's rutted with color variations topped by a polar ice cap.
Pictures set to be released on Wednesday are expected to be more than 10 times the resolution of those already published.
Dr. Edward Guinan, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Villanova University, said he's excited to see the rest of the images.
"There will be a whole series of studies made about the composition of the atmosphere and the surface features," said Guinan "whether there's plate tectonics or even could be underground oceans, if it's heated, because it has a big moon called Charon that could be tidally heating the interior of it.
On board the probe are some of the ashes of American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh. He discovered the dwarf planet eighty-five years ago.
