WASHINGTON: Two scientists from the University of Virginia are a few days away from taking part in a space exploration mission a decade in the making.
A planetary geologist and astronomer are working with NASA to interpret some of the first high resolution images of Pluto’s surface.
On July 14 a spacecraft called New Horizons will fly by Pluto but not enter its orbit.
The craft has been on its way to Pluto for more than a decade.
UVA scientists will interpret and analyze the pictures it collects from 3.7 billion miles away.
Professors say the satellite will collect data for 24 hours before it’s time to send the information back to earth.
“It’s going to take about a year to send what it’s collected back to earth. So we’ll see a sort of subset of images and other kinds of data, enough so we can sort of tell the general story and then all the details will get filled in over a year or more,” says Alan Howard, UVA professor.
Scientists say the last time any images were captured of Pluto or its surface was by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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