Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission have released the sharpest view yet of Pluto.
This mosaic provides the best view ever obtained of the dwarf planet Pluto. The lower right edge of the planet in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
Four images from the LORRI instrument (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager) aboard New Horizons were combined with color data from the spacecraft’s Ralph instrument to create this global view of the dwarf planet.
The images were obtained at a distance of 280,000 miles (450,000 km) from Pluto.
They show features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 km).
That’s twice the resolution of the single-image view captured on July 13, 2015 and revealed at the time of New Horizons’ July 14 closest approach.
After passing Pluto, New Horizons will be headed out to the Kuiper Belt where several Kuiper Belt Objects with diameters exceeding 20 miles (35 km) are expected to be targeted for encounter and similar measurements to those made at Pluto.
This phase of the mission will last from five to ten years.
Currently New Horizons is approximately 9.3 million miles (15 million km) from the Pluto system.
The spacecraft is healthy and all systems are operating normally.
