New Horizons is a NASA space probe launched to study the dwarf planet Pluto
This image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on April 9
After nine years of space flight, NASA’s New Horizons probe s sent back its first full-color picture of Pluto and the dwarf planet's biggest moon, Charon — and although the image shows little more than a couple of dots, it hints at the unprecedented views to come.
This first image of Pluto with its largest moon Charon is a little blurry. The portrait released Tuesday was taken by the piano-sized probe's Ralph color imager on April 9, from a distance of about 71 million miles (115 million kilometers), roughly the distance from the Sun to Venus.
It is the first color image ever made of the Pluto system by a spacecraft on approach. The image is a preliminary reconstruction, which will be refined later by the New Horizons science team. Clearly visible are both Pluto and the Texas-sized Charon.
At this distance, neither Pluto nor Charon is well resolved by the color imager, but their distinctly different appearances can be seen. As New Horizons approaches its flyby of Pluto on July 14, it will deliver color images that eventually show surface features as small as a few miles across.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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