New color photos from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft released Friday offered an incredible view of Pluto’s atmosphere, backlit by the sun.
New Horizons took the photos around midnight on July 15, after the craft had made its closest approach. As it sped away from the planet, the satellite “looked back” to capture the image, which shows sunlight illuminating Pluto’s atmosphere to cast a halo around the former planet.
NASA reported that an early analysis of the photo shows two distinct layers of haze surrounding Pluto: one that’s about 50 miles above the surface and another at an altitude of approximately 30 miles.
Michael Summers, a co-investigator on the project, said the haze in the image will be key to analyzing the chemical compounds that make Pluto’s surface appear red. Scientists had previously believed that Pluto’s temperatures were too warm for haze to form.
NASA earlier released never before seen images of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, and Pluto’s surface.
