Pluto in Enhanced Color
Explanation:
Pluto is more colorful than we can see.
Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System's most famous
dwarf planet,
taken by the robotic
New Horizons spacecraft during its
flyby in 2015 July,
have been digitally combined to give an
enhanced-color view of this
ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface.
The featured enhanced color image is not only
esthetically pretty but
scientifically
useful,
making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct.
For example, the light-colored heart-shaped
Tombaugh
Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here
to be divisible into two regions that are
geologically different,
with the leftmost lobe
Sputnik Planitia also appearing unusually smooth.
After Pluto, New Horizons continued on, shooting
past asteroid Arrokoth in 2019 and has
enough speed to escape our
Solar
System completely.
Pluto-Related Images with Brief Explanations:
APOD Pluto Search
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
