Detailed Pluto images keep on coming from New Horizons

September 25, 2015
Bill Condie

Bill Condie

Bill Condie is a science journalist based in Adelaide, Australia.
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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced colour view of Pluto that combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). Many landforms have their own distinct colours, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. The image resolves details and colors on scales as small as 1.3 kilometres. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
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An extended colour image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows rounded and bizarrely textured mountains, informally named the Tartarus Dorsa, that rise up along Pluto’s day-night terminator. This view, roughly 530 kilometres across, combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on 14 July. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
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Here, enhanced colour has been added from the global colour image. This image is about 530 kilometres across. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
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High-resolution images of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft just before closest approach on 14 July are the sharpest images to date of Pluto’s varied terrain—revealing details down to scales of 270 metres. In this 120-kilometre section taken from the larger, high-resolution mosaic above, the textured surface of the plain surrounds two isolated ice mountains. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

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