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Narendra Modi Congratulates Nasa on Pluto Mission

Narendra Modi Congratulates Nasa on Pluto Mission

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 17 July 2015 13:37 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated Nasa for its success in space exploration as its spaceship sent data and photos of Pluto.

"A landmark feat in space exploration as Nasa's aptly named spaceship sends back data & photos of Pluto from almost 5 billion kilometres away," he tweeted.

"Congratulations to @Nasa team. Their efforts will provide rich insights to enhance our understanding of our solar system," Modi added.

He was commenting on Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft getting humanity's first up-close look at Pluto.

(Also see: Nasa's New Horizons Probe Finds Pluto Is Bigger Than Predicted)

The signal received back home in the US confirms the probe has sailed pass its target successfully and it is now set to transmit a wealth of data - including several new high resolution images from Pluto.

Pluto is the first Kuiper Belt object visited by a mission from Earth.

Nasa on Wednesday released the first close-up images of Pluto from Nasa's New Horizon's spacecraft after its historic of flyby of the dwarf planet, showing icy mountain ranges.

The mountains' elevation reaches 11,000 feet (3,400 metres), the US space agency said, or about as high as the Rocky Mountains.

Scientists were also stunned to see a close-up section of Pluto that showed no sign of craters, despite its home in the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond Neptune where cosmic debris is constantly pelting Pluto and its five moons.

Nasa said the findings suggest that Pluto is geologically active, and contains parts that are youthful in astronomical terms, perhaps less than 100 million years old, a small fraction of the 4.5 billion year age of the solar system.

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