New Pics of Pluto and and Its Largest Moon Sent from NASA's Probe

This is a birthday honor to Professor Clyde Tombaugh on his 109th birthday, who first discovered the icy dwarf planet, Pluto. And, nothing could be better than looking at the first new images of Pluto sent by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Those pictures were taken on January 25 and January 27 when New Horizons was about 126 million miles from Pluto. The images are clear but carry very low resolution because of the large distances. Although the images were taken by high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, the pictures of Pluto and Charon, its largest moon, appears as pixelated blobs on the black space behind as AmericanHerald reports.

New Horizons spacecraft will reach closest to the dwarf planet July 14, 2015. The new images of Pluto are part of the progressive information about Pluto. Daughter of Clyde Tombaugh, Annette Tombaugh is very thrilled with the images as reported by NASA Press release. She states that it is very exciting to see the first images of the planet that was discovered by her father. Naturally, Clyde would have been astounded and very pleased if he were still alive today.

Pluto for the mankind is no longer just a point of light. With those images, the miniscule planet finally gets bigger as New Horizons brings in more information. The fresh LORRI pictures also prove that the performance of the camera has remained stable, ever since it was hurled into space more than almost a decade ago. The spacecraft has covered more than 3 billion miles and is traveling at a speed of about 31,000 mph. It mission is to study Pluto and its moons, as well as the Kuiper Belt in which it resides. According to Washington Post, in the case it remains operational till 2038, it will be able to send information about the outer heliosphere.

 The new images of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft are an honor of Professor Tombaugh discovery.