From a little more than one million miles away, Pluto's surface is really starting to look sharp.
NASA's uncrewed New Horizons spacecraft has taken an amazing new image of the dwarf planet, revealing its surface features as the probe closes in on Pluto for its close pass with the small world on Tuesday.
The new photo -- released today, but taken on July 11 -- gives scientists exciting hints of possible cliffs, an impact crater and the bright heart-shaped blotch on Pluto, according to NASA. Scientists expect to get a better look at the heart-shaped feature during the close flyby, which will bring the craft about 7,750 miles from the small world's surface.
New Horizon's close approach marks the first time a spacecraft will ever explore Pluto from close range. It's a mission of "raw exploration," according to New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern.
The $722 million mission hasn't just beamed back images of Pluto. The piano-sized spacecraft also snapped some amazing photos of the dwarf planet's largest moon, Charon, on July 11.
A recently taken photo shows a possible chasm on the moon that could be even larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth, NASA said. Scientists are still trying to figure out the composition of Charon's dark areas at the moon's north pole, but more data gathered during the New Horizons flyby could shed light on that question.
“New Horizons has transformed our view of this distant moon from a nearly featureless ball of ice to a world displaying all kinds of geologic activity," William McKinnon, deputy lead scientist with New Horizon’s Geology and Geophysics investigation team said in a statement.
Charon also plays host to a huge crater about 60 miles in diameter. The crater's color could indicate that it formed sometime in the last billion years, NASA said, during a collision with a small object in the Kuiper Belt -- the mass of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit that Pluto calls home.
New Horizons will be about one million miles from Pluto at about 11:23 p.m. EDT Sunday, as it heads towards its closest approach with the dwarf planet, expected at 7:49 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.
New Horizons launched into space in 2006 and has traveled about three billion miles to arrive at the dwarf planet for this flyby mission.