NASA: A Portrait from the Final Approach to Pluto and Charon

by Benson Agoha | Space Science

NASA's New Horizon recently sent back stunning photos of Pluto and Charon - two dwarf planets that exist billions of miles away from earth.

The photo below is the portrait from the final approach of New Horizon. Pluto and Charon display striking color and brightness contrast in the composite image from July 11, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images colorized with Ralph data collected from the last rotation of Pluto.

"Color data being returned by the spacecraft now will update these images, bringing color contrast into sharper focus" NASA said.

Pluto and Charon

Being much smaller than other planets in our solar constellation, Pluto and Charon look like mini water drops when compared with earth. Charon is about half in size as pluto.

Below, the new photo presents a view of Pluto and Charon as they would appear if placed slightly above Earth's surface and viewed from a great distance.

Recent measurements obtained by New Horizons indicate that Pluto has a diameter of 2370 km, 18.5% that of Earth's, while Charon has a diameter of 1208 km, 9.5% that of Earth's.

* Source: NASA