NASA on Tuesday morning released one of the first images of Pluto as its New Horizons spacecraft makes its closest approach to our far-flung celestial cousin.
This image was captured while New Horizons was flying 476,000 miles from Pluto's surface on July 13 at around 4 p.m. ET, about 16 hours the spacecraft makes its closest approach.
A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Jul 14, 2015 at 4:00am PDT
The most standout detail is Pluto's heart-shaped feature, which the spacecraft first revealed in a photo it sent back to Earth last week. NASA first released the image via Instagram, but the agency will debut a high-resolution version later in the morning.
According to Mashable space reporter Miriam Kramer, the New Horizons crew got to see the image first. This was their reaction:
Celebrate with us! Watch @NASANewHorizons coverage. LIVE NOW: http://t.co/KX5g7yYnYG #PlutoFlyby is at 7:49am ET! pic.twitter.com/8JdSzLrg3l— NASA (@NASA) July 14, 2015
It took nine years for New Horizons to travel 3 billion miles to Pluto. It will make its closest approach on Tuesday at 7:49 a.m. ET, beaming back images that will be even clearer than this one.