--- title: Pluto: New Image Shows Enhanced View of Its Heart description: NASA released a false color image of Pluto on Thursday, combining images and data from the New Horizons spacecraft. canonical: https://time.com/3971583/nasa-pluto-image/ author: Mia Tramz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-24T18:24:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:37.762Z article:section: Science og:title: New Pluto Image Shows Enhanced View of Its Heart og:description: NASA released the false color composite image on Thursday og:url: https://time.com/3971583/nasa-pluto-image/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf3a459902dfea4d/69885c662dce0197189e4c78/false-color-pluto-photo-new-horizons.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pluto photo from four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) combined with color data from the Ralph instrument og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Pluto Image Shows Enhanced View of Its Heart twitter:description: NASA released the false color composite image on Thursday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf3a459902dfea4d/69885c662dce0197189e4c78/false-color-pluto-photo-new-horizons.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Pluto Image Shows Enhanced View of Its Heart ## Video: A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home [Watch (HLS stream): A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6ookw4W2.m3u8) (13:31)  _Published 2021-03-11. A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home_ by [Mia Tramz](https://time.com/author/mia-tramz/) and [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/) Jul 24, 2015 6:24 PM UTC  An enhanced color global view of Pluto released on July 24, 2015. An enhanced color global view of Pluto released on July 24, 2015.NASA/REUTERS by [Mia Tramz](https://time.com/author/mia-tramz/) and [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/) Jul 24, 2015 6:24 PM UTC NASA [released](http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/pluto-dazzles-in-false-color) a false-color image of Pluto on Thursday, revealing an unprecedented view of the dwarf planet’s vividly contrasting patches of terrain. The picture is a composite of multiple images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft, captured 280,000 miles away from Pluto in the days before the July 14 flyby. The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the probe captured [photos that thrilled the world](http://time.com/3959441/pluto-nasa-images/) last week. Close-ups from that camera were combined with data from a Ralph instrument on board to create these new color depictions. According to the NASA press release, the color suggests insights about Pluto’s [“icy heart”](http://time.com/3967807/new-horizons-pluto-heart-mountain-range-photo/): the ice appears to be originating and spreading outward from the “heart of the heart,” Sputnik Planum. ### See New Horizons' Best Images of Pluto  An enhanced color global view of pluto released on July 24, 2015. NASA/Reuters  In the center left of Pluto’s vast heart-shaped feature – informally named “Tombaugh Regio” - lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains and has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite. The image was acquired on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute  A close-up image of a region near Pluto's equator shows a range of mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft as it passed within 7,800 feet of the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015. NASA/Getty Images  A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute  A composite image of Pluto and its largest moon Charon collected separately by New Horizons during approach on July 13 and July 14, 2015\. The relative reflectivity, size, separation, and orientations of Pluto and Charon are approximated in this composite image, and they are shown in approximate true color. NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI  Pluto, seen from the New Horizons spacecraft on July 13, 2015 just before the space craft's historic fly-by. NASA/AP  NASA's New Horizons captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute  A close up view of Pluto's largest moon, Charon. NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI  Pluto on July 14, 2015, as seen by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft while it looked back toward the sun. 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