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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

SCIENCE | What does planet Pluto actually look like?

Ever since I've seen it in science books and magazines, I've always thought that Pluto (classically, the 9th planet in the solar system) was an icy pale blue world, but I was wrong.

The New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched in 2006, was sent to look into the Earth's neighboring planets. It was able to come close to the planetoid Pluto at 12,500 km, or approximately 1,413 times the height of Mount Everest! Shown below is the actual image (color, texture)  of Pluto.

New Horizons is now on its way to the Kuiper belt to further explore our solar system. It is expected that in 16 months, all data and images during the Pluto flyby have been received by NASA stations on Earth. And by that time, things will be a bit more exciting!

Image Courtesy: US space agency NASA

But there's more to Pluto than just being a ball of matter, it's also now becoming a meme!