--- 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: 2026-08-04T07:43:07.383Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Pluto Image Shows Enhanced View of Its Heart > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=68455056-179a-45e8-b54d-ae48c55323b2&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## 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. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] It is a long road and it is very hard. I've seen him behind the scenes. I've seen the hard work he's put in, and here we are, and this is the moment. And so, it can't not Lot pull you in and a joke or two here and there. [ MUSIC ] I do sometimes dream of being in space. Sometimes I'll wake up and I'll tell Miko, I had this dream I was launching a space shuttle or a space station or sometimes there are people with me. Like she's been with me in my dreams, my kids have. But in reality, while I'm up there most of humanity is 250 miles below you. If anything goes wrong on earth. You're not coming home [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] How's it going for you now? It's actually going pretty good. [ MUSIC ] In float suit Let me know if you're good to stay in for another hour. Got my [ UNKNOWN ] [ MUSIC ] For decades human beings as a whole and Americans in particular have been talking about going to Mars. Mars. As long ago as 1969, after the Apollo 11 moon landing, people were predicting Americans would be on Mars by 1975. It has been a dream deferred. For half a century. [ MUSIC ] Getting to Mars requires multiple systems in Nasa to be working at once. The system that's the most fragile and destructible of all, however, is the human body. It's the one we didn't invent. It's the one we're stuck with. [ MUSIC ] If we plan to get to Mars, we have to figure out how to make that biological machine survive in a place it was not built to survive. [ MUSIC ] Scott Kelly. Has been working toward this mission his entire career. He's been working toward this mission his entire life in some respects. [ MUSIC ] He knows what it's like to have a football field size piece of $ 100 billion infrastructure. In his control and now he is going back for one year to run one of the most important bio- medical studies NASA has ever run [ MUSIC ] Yeah, the way he misses the people, and then the weather. It's kinda like. Well, it's going outside. There's no sun on your face. You never feel this on my feet, this fire. You never feel this cold breeze. It's always exactly the same. So I had this Texans hat. And it was completely faded and stained and it was the best hat ever and then I lost them. So, I went and I bought two of the exact same hat. This one's gonna go to Cuz I stand with me. But then I took the other one, and I strewed him to the fence over there. And he's going to be exposed to the Houston weather for a year. And he's going to turn back into old smokey for me when I get home. You're gonna come home, and a year later, you're gonna see earth changed something too. I hope not too much. [ LAUGH ] We'll figure it out. When the first time like I actually had an interaction with you at work you came in. And I thought. It was so weird to me now to think of. You thought it was my brother? I couldn't tell the difference between the two of you which is weird to me now. Because I'm like I can tell When you; re walking away I know exactly who's who. [ MUSIC ] Yeah, we used to look, I guess, very much alike. To some extent still, for people who don't know us. And my mother used to dress us the same. Now look at these old pictures with Orange shorts, and a striped orange shirt, and a bow tie. [ MUSIC ] When we were little we had our own secret language. We did almost everything together, and I remember laying in bed one time in the morning, and talking to my brother about how we were gonna build an airplane in the back yard. We just said at five or six years old we figured we could do that. Like we had the skill to do this. Obviously, we didn't. We didn't get very far with the airplane or later with the spaceship. [ MUSIC ] I think twins tend to be a little bit different. I think their relationship is different than just siblings. [ MUSIC ] You okay? Yep. [ MUSIC ] So, this thing is not meant to walk around in. [ LAUGH ] No. NASA's doing kind of a comparative study between my brother Mark and I, since we're identical twins. I call him much more when I'm in space than I do on earth. And it's because you just feel like you're so far away, you need to try to maintain some kind of connection. I'll be probably more excited for him than anybody else. I've flown four flights. This'll be his fourth flight. For my mom's passed away, but for my dad to have gone through this whole experience eight times now, that's a lot. [ MUSIC ] Throughout history people have done things that are risky. So even though it is a risky thing to be doing, and I think it's a lot more risky than some people might think, it, in my mind, is worth it even if the unfortunate And tragic thing was to happen to myself and my crew mates, I still think it's worth it. Being part of something that you feel is larger than yourself [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] it's going to be a long year for I'll tell you that. Dad, I can call you from space and harass you, just as much as I can harass you over the phone here. You don't have to worry. Okay. Thank you. [ LAUGH ] Got your tunes, your headphones. Uh- huh. [ MUSIC ] [ LAUGH ] That was funny. Oh. Yep. What did you say this morning that was funny? And I told you don't say that, yay. God. It would. What was I talking about. Oh, when you said goodbye, dad. Goodbye, dad. I'm going to miss your silky smoothness. Should I show you how the remote works? I think I got it now, I think I got it. We're on our own. I'm going to jump in the shower. Real quick. Okay. [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] Excuse me everybody! Can we be really quiet for a sound test real quick? Sound check. [ MUSIC ] Hello Scott And Gabby and I just wanted to say Bon Voyage. How do you say that? Bon Voyage. And you know we know you only have a couple of days in the US and then you are gone for I don't know like five years or something. Do you know what it is? How long? One year in space. Hey dad. I just want you to know that I'm really gonna miss you. You made so many sacrifices over the years for Charlotte and I. You helped me become the person I am today. Hi Dad, I'd like to wish you good luck on your trip. It's exciting and you're going to be working, but remember to take in the view. I love you, Daddy. [ INAUDIBLE ] People ask me what am I going to do, and I always just say, you know, I'm going to just see how far love travels. You want to know how long a year is. It's 31. Six million seconds. It will be 31. 6 million times you're on my mind. I said to my brother I'll be in space and flying all the way around the sun one lap at a year. And he's like so will I. The rest of us will be doing the same thing. On spaceship Earth. I get the question, how does it feel to be the daughter of an astronaut. You know he's been an astronaut since I was one year's old, I wouldn't know anything else. I can't compare it to anything else, so everybody's like yeah it's so cool, your dad's an astronaut he's going to space for a year. And for me, I'm like, yeah. He's my dad. [ LAUGH ] You know? He's my dorky dad. The one who gets mad at me if I don't do my home work, or if I don't come home on time. [ LAUGH ] He's still my dad, no matter what his job is. And And he's a great one at that. 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