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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Pluto may have ice cap at pole

• http://www.bbc.com, By Jonathan Amos

The US space agency probe is en route to the dwarf planet and is set to make a close flyby on 14 July.

Pictures taken from a distance of just over 100 million km display regions of varying brightness.

But it is a persistent light patch that catches the eye, which scientists say could be nitrogen ice on the surface.

The diminutive world remains blob-like in the images, even though it is being seen through New Horizons' powerful Lorri telescope.

Nonetheless, this is the best ever view we have had of Pluto, says mission principal investigator Alan Stern from the Southwest Research Institute.

"These images are just a little bit better than anything that has ever been obtained in history," he told reporters.


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