--- title: Pluto New Horizons: New False Color Photos Show Makeup description: The images highlight differences between the surface of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. canonical: https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/ author: Katy Osborn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-14T21:57:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:35.009Z article:section: Science og:title: New False Color Photos Set Pluto and Its Moon Apart og:description: The images highlight differences between the surface of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. og:url: https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc714d8b50cd2e53e/69885ae335ba6f7021c0e2ed/pluto-charon.jpg?branch=production&width=1041&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1041 og:image:height: 586 og:image:alt: Pluto and Charon in False Color Show Compositional Diversity og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New False Color Photos Set Pluto and Its Moon Apart twitter:description: The images highlight differences between the surface of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc714d8b50cd2e53e/69885ae335ba6f7021c0e2ed/pluto-charon.jpg?branch=production&width=1041&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New False Color Photos Set Pluto and Its Moon Apart > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: NASA Celebrates Historic Pluto Mission [Watch (HLS stream): NASA Celebrates Historic Pluto Mission](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WkGiVtGO.m3u8) (1:36)  _Published 2015-07-15. NASA is celebrating an historic first mission to Pluto as the world anxiously awaits more images of the dwarf planet._ by [Katy Osborn](https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jul 14, 2015 9:57 PM UTC  Pluto and Charon in False Color Show Compositional Diversity Pluto and Charon in False Color Show Compositional Diversity NASA/APL/SwRI by [Katy Osborn](https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jul 14, 2015 9:57 PM UTC NASA’s New Horizons Team has released new exaggerated color images from its space probe flyby of Pluto and its moons, highlighting differences between the surface of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. The images, which were obtained and color-filtered early Monday morning using “Ralph,” one of the seven science instruments on the NASA New Horizons spacecraft that passed just above 7,000 miles away from Pluto on Tuesday, reveal information about the weather on the dwarf planet and its moon, the age of their craters and the molecular make-up of the ice that appears to be prevalent on both surfaces, [NASA reports](http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-and-charon-shine-in-false-color). The filtered images also show Pluto’s heart—a newly-discovered geological feature on Pluto’s surface that scientists are particularly excited about—as being made up of two seemingly distinct regions: just a taste of how much scientists still have to learn from the New Horizons data as it trickles in. Read more at [NASA](http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-and-charon-shine-in-false-color). ## Transcript We have a healthy space craft. We've recorded data of the Pluto system, and we're outbound to Pluto. It was a nine year, 3 billion mile journey to Pluto so there was quite a bit of excitement when New Horizon's team members of the John Hopkins applied physics laboratory finally got that mission accomplished message. And lift off with NASA's New Horizon spacecraft. After launching January 2006, New Horizons flew by the dwarf planet and collected more data than scientists have ever had before. NASA had already seized a hi- res image that New Horizons was able to. To send back before its flight around the planet. But that's nothing compared to the treasure trove of data expected to come in. It takes around four and a half hours for a single signal to travel from the spacecraft to earth. It will be 16 months before New Horizons transfers everything it collected. The project will give scientists a better look at Pluto than they have ever had before. Researchers hope to learn more about it's atmosphere, it's geology and it's five moons. When it's done sending data back home, New Horizons next task is to check out the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond Neptune of more than 100, 000 comets and asteroids. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/"},"headline":"New False Color Photos Set Pluto and Its Moon Apart","datePublished":"2015-07-14T21:57:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:35.009Z","description":"The color-filtered images reveal new information about the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.","url":"https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/","keywords":["Space","Pluto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc714d8b50cd2e53e/69885ae335ba6f7021c0e2ed/pluto-charon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Osborn","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc714d8b50cd2e53e/69885ae335ba6f7021c0e2ed/pluto-charon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pluto and Charon in False Color Show Compositional Diversity","caption":"Pluto and Charon in False Color Show Compositional Diversity","creditText":"NASA/APL/SwRI","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/","name":"New False Color Photos Set Pluto and Its Moon Apart"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA Celebrates Historic Pluto Mission","description":"NASA is celebrating an historic first mission to Pluto as the world anxiously awaits more images of the dwarf planet.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WkGiVtGO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-15T16:31:29.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WkGiVtGO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/","duration":"PT1M36S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3957994/pluto-false-color-photos/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```