Pluto's Craters, Spots, Signs of Snow Seen in New Horizons Flyby

This July 13, 2015, image of Pluto and Charon is presented in false colors to make differences in surface material and features easy to see. These are not the actual colors of Pluto and Charon, and the apparent distance between the two bodies has been reduced for this side-by-side view. Credit NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto at around 7:50 a.m. EDT today, arriving 72 seconds earlier than expected and missing its aim point by about 45 miles — not bad after a 9.5-year, 3-billion-mile (5 billion km) journey and well within the probe’s target zone. Principal Investigator Alan Stern led a large group of scientists, enthusiasts, and media gathered at the site of mission operations at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, in a countdown to closest approach. As New Horizons zoomed past Pluto’s surface, it performed a tightly choreographed series of maneuvers to learn as much as possible about the world and its five moons, including giant Charon. But the spacecraft wasn’t done. As it flew behind the planetary system, it looked back at both Pluto and Charon as they passed first in front of the Sun and then Earth. These observations will prove the most sensitive for studying the composition and density profile of Pluto’s atmosphere and for seeing whether Charon has an atmosphere at all.