Nasa has released the best pictures of Pluto that anyone alive is ever likely to see.
The New Horizons craft has sent back a trove of pictures since its flyby. But these are the first time that those pictures have been sent back without compression, meaning that they can be seen at their true size and in their full detail.
They mark the closest view that humans are likely to get for decades, and the best sight that many alive will ever see. The New Horizons craft will not send back any better images because its flyby past Pluto is now finished, meaning that any pictures would need to be taken by a new craft — a mission that is likely to take decades.
Though Nasa scientists are hopeful that the New Horizons mission and others like it will bring a new interest in funding more projects to the outer solar system, it's unlikely that any new missions will be undertaken soon. Astronomers hope to send out new crafts to rocks like Pluto and the distant moons of our solar system — but getting funding for them can often be politically difficult.
The pictures show Pluto at a resolution of about 77 meters per pixel. That means that features that are about half the size of a city block can be picked out — on Earth, that would mean being able to spot a playground, or a large building.
“These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on planet Earth,” John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see."
