The newest and best glimpse of Pluto we’ll likely see until the New Horizons probe arrives in 2015.
“This is the most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003… [A] mysterious bright spot… is unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. Pluto is so small and distant that the task of resolving the surface is as challenging as trying to see the markings on a soccer ball 40 miles away” (New Hubble Maps of Pluto Show Surface Changes, NASA, 2 Feb 2010).
Video credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie/Southwest Research Institute.
