New Horizons space probe captures image of Pluto's 'heart'

A "heart-shaped" area is seen on the image of Pluto taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: Nasa

Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has captured a stunning view of Pluto ahead in preparation of its historic flyby next week.

It was taken on July 7, when the probe was just under 5 million miles (8 million km) away from Pluto.

The image shows a dark area at the equator of the dwarf planet dubbed “the whale,” and a large heart-shaped bright area that measures around 1,200 miles (2,000 km) across.

New Horizons is set to take the first-ever close up images and scientific observations of Pluto and its system of large and small moons on Tuesday.

It will past the planet at 30,800 miles per hour to take detailed images "at about 500 times better resolution than we see today", Jeff Moore from Nasa's Ames Research Centre said.

"It will be incredible!", he added.