AN EAST Lancashire scientist has revealed that Pluto is crater-free and mountainous – 50 years to the day after the Lancashire Telegraph reported that Mars was flat!

John Spencer, who is at the controls of the 3.6billion-mile New Horizons probe mission to the outer extremities of space, was shocked to make the announcement that Pluto has huge mountains made of ice that are as high as those in the Rockies in America.

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The Colne planetary expert – who attended Newtown Nursery School, Lord Street Junior, Colne Grammar School, and Nelson and Colne College, said: “You do not need tidal heating to power geological activity on icy worlds.

“That’s a really important discovery we just made this morning.”

In what could be described as a cosmic alignment, on July 16, 1965, The Lancashire Evening Telegraph was reporting on another historic mission into space, when it published the simple front-page headline: “Mars as seen by Mariner.”

The blurry image was taken 10,500 miles from the Red Planet after the windmill-shaped craft Mariner-4 had travelled 150,000,000 miles.

The article’s writer said he “accepted the picture is not good but the fact that we have such a picture at all is amazing” – a far cry from this week’s clear images from Pluto.

But some things remain the same across decades – the intriguing possibilities of new discoveries.

This week scientists were shocked to see mountains and an atmosphere which sees frozen flakes of nitrogen fall as snow.

The debate will now rage over whether the planet has icy volcanic plumes and clouds.

Back in July 1965, the Telegraph stated: “The photograph leaves unsolved the centuries-old riddle about possible life on the mysterious planet.”

And some things haven’t changed – the enthusiasm of those at the helm of missions into the unknown.

This week scientists were whooping with joy in America, and 50 years ago we reported that, “shirt-sleeved scientists at the laboratory, unshaven and weary from a lack of sleep after hours of concentrated study, were over-joyed at the success of the mission”.

John Spencer put is succinctly: “There’s something very different about Plutonian geology.

“It’s like piles of stuff with grooves on it.

“There’s been erosion, there’s been mountain building and it’s baffling.

“It’s baffling in a very interesting and wonderful way.

“I hope that when we get some more context it’ll start to make some sense.”