NASA Captures Images Of Pluto and Its Moon Charon

On Tuesday, NASA's New Horizon released photos of Pluto and large moon, Charon, on its mission three billion miles away from Earth.

Flying at the speed of 30,800 miles per hour, (49,600 kph) with seven science instruments, the space craft captured images of the dark icy planet which arrived 4 ½ hours later on Earth after it was sent from the other end of the Solar System.

Seen in false colors, New Horizon's Ralph instrument depicted the variety of planetary bodies' surfaces, highlighting their craters and terrains. Images of Pluto and Charon were obtained on July 13, 3:38 AM EDT, and arrived in distinctive colors at 12:25 PM.

"We make these color images to highlight the variety of surface environments present in the Pluto system," said New Horizon's Composition Team co-investigator, Dennis Reuter. "They show us in an intuitive way that there is much still to learn from the data coming down."

"The image reveals that the bright heart-shaped region of Pluto includes areas that differ in color characteristics," according to NASA's stement. "The western lobe, shaped like an ice-cream cone, appears peach color in this image. A mottled area on the right (east) appears bluish. Even within Pluto's northern polar cap, in the upper part of the image, various shades of yellow-orange indicate subtle compositional differences."

"The red on the dark northern polar cap of Charon is attributed to hydrocarbon materials including a class of chemical compounds called tholins," the website added. "The mottled colors at lower latitudes point to the diversity of terrains on Charon."

The New Horizon team was incommunicado during their Pluto mission until they "phoned home" at around 9 PM EDT on July 14.

Science enthusiasts are wondering if this mission will get Pluto back as a planet in the Solar System after it lost its planetary status in 2006.