The View Improving, Less than One Pluto Day from Encounter

Next week, we’ll be seeing some pretty sharp views of Pluto and Charon, but for my money, the view’s starting to get pretty good now!  Here’s the latest image from July 8, when New Horizons was 6 million kilometers (3.7 million miles) from the pair and closing in fast. Now we can start to see more details, including what looks like surface features that could be impact craters. If so, and bear in mind that the craters aren’t yet proven to be craters, then the Geology, Geophysics, and Imaging team members will be looking at those holes in the Pluto surface to see what’s hidden below. One thing about impact craters, when they are created, their formation reveals the layers of ground (or other materials) below the surface. So, this will be an important discovery if New Horizons can “peek” down beneath the icy crust.

Personalities at the Frontier of the Solar System

What’s really cool about this image? It’s showing us Pluto has its own personality, just as Charon does, and they’re both worlds in their own rights. Pluto is covered with a mixture of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ices, and their colors are made as solar ultraviolet radiation darkens the organic-rich ices.  Charon is more uniformly darkish gray, with a mixture of water and ammonia compounds.  How did they get this way? How have Pluto and Charon stayed together for billions of years? What else will we find?

Stay tuned!