24th July 2015 or "How did they do it?"

Latest image from NASA New Horizons spacecraft. The colours have been enhanced to show differences in the texture and composition of Pluto's surface.  Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This image was taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles away from the planet.

 UPDATE 25 July

Pluto in true colour .Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

 What fabulous images!!!!!!!

Pluto and Charon in true colour.  Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

 

Small moons Nix (left) and Hydra (right). Credit:NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

 Pluto’s moon Nix (left), shown here in enhanced color as imaged by the New Horizons Ralph instrument, has a reddish spot that has attracted the interest of mission scientists.  The data were obtained on the morning of July 14, 2015, and received on the ground on July 18.  At the time the observations were taken New Horizons was about 102,000 miles (165,000 km) from Nix. The image shows features as small as approximately 2 miles (3 kilometers) across on Nix, which is estimated to be 26 miles (42 kilometers) long and 22 miles (36 kilometers) wide.

Pluto’s small, irregularly shaped moon Hydra (right) is revealed in this black and white image taken from New Horizons’ LORRI instrument on July 14, 2015, from a distance of about 143,000 miles (231,000 kilometers). Features as small as 0.7 miles (1.2 kilometers) are visible on Hydra, which measures 34 miles (55 kilometers) in length.

 

Backlit by the sun, Pluto’s atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft around midnight EDT on July 15. This global portrait of the atmosphere was captured when the spacecraft was about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Pluto and shows structures as small as 12 miles across. The image, delivered to Earth on July 23, is displayed with north at the top of the frame.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

In the northern region of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum, swirl-shaped patterns of light and dark suggest that a surface layer of exotic ices has flowed around obstacles and into depressions. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.

 Credit:  NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.