Pluto mission satiates our quest for knowledge

For all seven billion of us sharing this blue planet — on a never-ending annual trip around the Sun — there is a boundless fascinating and wonder at what lies beyond — “out there” – in the infinity of space. And the more we can actually learn, the more our inquiring minds need to know. How wonderful then that the first high-resolution images sent back by Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft are already prompting scientists and cosmologists to reconsider their ideas about Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.

The images show that Pluto has been recently geologically active — if 100 billion years can be considered recent in our living mindset — and there is a large mountain range made up of ice water. The scarcity of craters too suggests both have seen recent geological activity on the surface.

This mission reminds us that we know very little of what exists beyond our immediate planet and there is a universe too that requires further exploration. And for a moment, we can look to the stars and imagine before problems on this Earth ground us once more.