Hubble’s portrait of everybody’s favorite ex-planet

While the Hubble space telescope has provided the world with some ofthe most amazing images ever taken of the very edge of our universe, it has now revealed details ofsomething much closer. The newest images, set to appear in theMarch issue of the Astronomical Journal, are of everybody's favoriteex-planet—now dwarf planet—Pluto. The images reveal an "icy anddark molasses-colored, mottled world that is undergoing seasonalchanges in its surface color and brightness."

The changes in color are believed to be the result of seasonalvariations where surface ice sublimes from one pole and migrates to theother. This transformation occurred over a short, two-year period from2000 to 2002—that's less than one percent of the total orbitalperiod/seasonal cycle of Pluto. These photos are the sharpest andclearest pictures taken of the planet to date, and will remain so untilNASA's New Horizon spacecraft comes within six months of this distant object—something that won't occur until 2015.

Click here to see the full photo map of Pluto's surface fromthe Hubble Space Telescope.