Nasa announcement: 'Amazing' Pluto discovery to be revealed, senior scientist says
Senior planetary scientist Dr Alan Stern said that Nasa wouldn't allow him to say anything before the official announcement
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Nasa are set to reveal an "amazing" discovery on Thursday, according to one of the space agency's senior scientists.
Dr Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and Principal Investigator on Nasa's New Horizons Pluto mission, made the exciting announcement whilst speaking at the University of Alberta in Canada.
Whilst speaking about the latest images of Pluto captured by the New Horizons probe, Stern said: "Nasa won't let me tell you what we're going to tell you on Thursday. It's amazing."
Last week, Nasa unveiled new images of the surfce of Pluto, which show a landscape of mountains, craters and gorges.
As reported by The Guardian, Stern said: "This world is alive."
"It has weather, it has hazes in the atmosphere, active geology... Every week I am floored."
There is no word yet on what the announcement could be, with Nasa taking the same line of secrecy as they did at their last big event - the announcement of the discovery of water on Mars.
However, a number of unknowns remain. Pluto has vast mountainous dune fields, a multicoloured surface, and a number of other mysterious features that have not been explained by science.
Thursday's announcement could relate to any one of these.
Nasa has had a year of big discoveries. From the discovery of flowing water on Mars, to the identification of 'Earth 2.0' - Kepler 452b, the most Earth-like planet every discovered - the leading space agency has been holding momentous announcements fairly regularly over the last few months.
As Stern said, "2015 will be a year in textbooks forever," as the year in which mankind discovered so much about its solar system.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments