Hubble peeks at Pluto

After decades of the tiny object being seen only as a point of light in even the best telescopic images, the Hubble Space Telescope makes the first survey of the surface of Pluto. Even without the distortion introduced by Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble’s best shots of Pluto are vague due to the distance from Earth to Pluto, but they mark the first time that even blurry surface detail has been seen. The new images help NASA gain support for a Pluto flyby mission in the 21st century, which will eventually be named New Horizons.