Pluto and its moons revealed

New York: NASA scientists associated with interplanetary space probe New Horizons have revealed the former "astronomer's planet" and its "intriguing system of small moons" in a comprehensive set of papers describing results from last summer's Pluto system flyby.

After a 9.5-year, three-billion-mile journey -- launching faster and traveling farther than any spacecraft to reach its primary target -- New Horizons zipped by Pluto on July 14, 2015.New Horizons' seven science instruments collected about 50 gigabits of data on the spacecraft's digital recorders, most of it coming over nine busy days surrounding the encounter, NASA said in a statement.

The first close-up pictures revealed a large heart-shaped feature carved into Pluto's surface, telling scientists that this "new" type of planetary world -- the largest, brightest and first-explored in the mysterious, distant "third zone" of our solar system known as the Kuiper Belt -- would be even more interesting and puzzling than models predicted.