AN EAST Lancashire scientist was today getting to grips with a raft of new data after a space probe ‘phoned home’.

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft provided humanity’s first up-close look at Pluto, sending word of its triumph across three billion miles to enthusiasts back home.

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Confirmation of the mission’s success came 13 hours after the actual fly-by with John Spencer at the controls for a 3.6billion-mile trip to the outer extremities of space.

The Colne planetary scientist, who attended Newtown Nursery School, Lord Street Junior, Colne Grammar School, and Nelson and Colne College, is part of the programming team steering the $700m voyage.

Mr Spencer today announced that his team has already measured the diameters of two of Pluto’s tiny moons, Nix and Hydra.

He said: “Just last weekend, we first started to see Nix and Hydra as a little bit more than points of light.

“Well, they were still points of light, but they were fat points of light, and that meant that we could start to determine their sizes.

“We really hadn’t any idea before as to how big they were. But it turns out they’re 20 or 30 miles across, which is kind of in the range of what we expected, but we’re not just guessing anymore.”

The images have left scientists going back to the drawing board about what they thought about PlutoThe images have left scientists going back to the drawing board about what they thought about Pluto.

The East Lancastrian added: “Until yesterday our best analogue was [Neptune’s moon] Triton – but the closer we look at Pluto, the less it looks like Triton.”

New Horizons arrived at Pluto after an epic journey that began nine and a half years ago, when Pluto was still considered a full-fledged planet.

The spacecraft swept to within 7,700 miles of Pluto at 31,000mph and it takes four and a half hours for signals to travel one way between New Horizons and Earth.

The picture of Pluto taken on Monday showed a frozen, pockmarked world, with a heart-shaped bright spot and darker areas around the equator.

People iwill be able to get an insight into the inner workings of the mission when John returns to Pendle in September when he will be hosting an evening at The ACE Centre in Nelson.

Tickets are £2 each for John’s presentation, on September 25, at 7.30pm.

To book, call 01282 661080 or visit acecentre.co.uk.