NASA spacecraft captures mysterious dark spots on Pluto

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has captured its last and best image of the four mysterious dark spots on Pluto’s <g data-gr-id="23">far side</g>, ahead of its historic flyby of the dwarf planet.

The spots appear on the side of Pluto that always faces its largest moon, Charon - the face that will be invisible to New Horizons when the spacecraft makes its close flyby on July 14, NASA said.

New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, described the image as “the last, best look that anyone will have of Pluto’s <g data-gr-id="20">far side</g> for decades to come.” 

The spots are connected to a dark belt that circles Pluto’s equatorial region. What continues to pique the interest of scientists is their similar size and even spacing.

“It’s weird that they’re spaced so regularly,” said New Horizons programme scientist Curt Niebur at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“We can’t tell whether they’re plateaus or plains, or whether they’re brightness variations on a completely smooth surface,” said Jeff Moore of NASA’s Ames Research Centre, California. The large dark areas are now estimated to be 480 kilometres across, an area roughly the size of the state 

of Missouri.