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First close-up image of Pluto's surface released

The first ever close-up image of Pluto's surface has been released following the historic fly past of Nasa's New Horizons space probe.

The spacecraft has taken nine years to reach the dwarf planet.

The latest images released by Nasa has shown more details of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, including surface material and features.

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New picture from New Horizons reveals heart of Pluto

A new picture showing Pluto in better detail than ever before - including its distinctive heart-shaped spot - has today arrived back on Earth after being beamed billions of miles through space.

This is the closest, most detailed picture of Pluto taken to date Credit: Nasa

The new image came as US space probe New Horizons makes its closest approach to the dwarf planet in the history of space exploration, coming within 7,767 miles (12,500km) of the surface within the next half an hour.

The nine-year, 3.26 billion-mile mission aims to collect data about the composition of Pluto, downgraded from planet to dwarf planet in 2006.

It has also provided better quality images, replacing the blurry shots previously captured by Nasa telescopes.

This picture was taken yesterday evening at 9pm UK time, at around 476,000m (766,000km) from the surface, and posted to Nasa's Instagram page today.

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