1 min read
Pluto and Charon (New Horizons)
Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are two of the most well-known residents of the Kuiper Belt. This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. The color and brightness of both Pluto and Charon have been processed identically to allow direct comparison of their surfaces, and to highlight the similarity between Charon’s polar red terrain and Pluto’s equatorial red terrain. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale.
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
- Release DateOctober 28, 2020
- Science ReleaseNASA’s Webb To Examine Objects in the Graveyard of the Solar System
- CreditImage: NASA, APL, SwRI
Related Images & Videos
Arrakoth (New Horizons)
Though not on Webb’s target list, Arrokoth is probably exemplary of a lot of objects in the Kuiper Belt. The farthest object ever visited by a spacecraft, it is composed of two, joined planetesimals. Arrokoth was photographed by the New Horizons spacecraft in December 2018 and...
Share
Details
Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA, APL, SwRI
