Astronomy - Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures

Astronomy - Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures

Target: Pluto

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

NASA's New Horizons probe has visited a place never before visited by a robotic probe from Earth: Pluto. In July 2015, the spacecraft completed a nearly-decade-long journey to fly by Pluto, and reveal humanity's first close-up look at the distant dwarf planet. See photos and images from the New Horizons mission to Pluto in this gallery.

Charon Seen by 'Plutoshine'

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This image by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the night side of Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon, against a star field, lit by faint reflected light from Pluto itself. The bright crescent on Charon's right side is a sliver of sunlit terrain; it is overexposed. New Horizons was about 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) beyond Pluto when it took the image on July 15, 2015.

Global Color Map of Pluto

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This new, detailed global color map of Pluto is based on a series of three color filter images obtained by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera aboard New Horizons during the NASA spacecraft’s close flyby of Pluto in July 2015.

Halos on Pluto

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Strange "haloed" craters can be seen on Pluto in these images of the dwarf planet from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Read the Full Story

Methane Snow on Pluto's Mountains

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

View of part of Pluto’s dark Cthulu region, captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015. The inset at left shows bright material coating the tops of Cthulu’s reddish mountains; the inset at right shows the distribution of methane ice in the area (light purple).

False-color Image of Pluto

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

New Horizons sees Pluto in truly psychedelic false color.

See photos and images from the New Horizons mission to Pluto in this gallery.

Sputnik Planum Western Region

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

This snapshot captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft shows the western region of the heart-shaped area informally known as Sputnik Planum, which has been found to be rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ices. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC).