--- title: See Pluto's Icy Terrain in the Highest Resolution Ever description: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this spectacular 50 miles wide view of Pluto's frosty topography, where massive blocks of nitrogen-rich water-ice stand up to 1.5 miles high in the Sputnik Planum shoreline, which divides the planet's mountains from its textured and cracked lowlands canonical: https://time.com/4137556/pluto-photo-nasa-high-resolution-new-horizons/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-05T16:44:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:08:09.211Z article:section: Science og:title: See Pluto's Icy Terrain in the Highest Resolution Ever og:description: From the New Horizons spacecraft og:url: https://time.com/4137556/pluto-photo-nasa-high-resolution-new-horizons/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9980037dad137711/698873e2f887dcf3fee9397b/mountainous-pluto.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: mountainous-pluto og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Pluto's Icy Terrain in the Highest Resolution Ever twitter:description: From the New Horizons spacecraft twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9980037dad137711/698873e2f887dcf3fee9397b/mountainous-pluto.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the Highest Resolution Pluto Photo NASA Has Ever Taken by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Dec 5, 2015 4:44 PM UTC  NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Dec 5, 2015 4:44 PM UTC ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4137556/pluto-photo-nasa-high-resolution-new-horizons/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4137556/pluto-photo-nasa-high-resolution-new-horizons/"},"headline":"This Is the Highest Resolution Pluto Photo NASA Has Ever Taken","datePublished":"2015-12-05T16:44:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:08:09.211Z","description":"NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this spectacular 50 miles wide view of Pluto's frosty topography, where massive blocks of nitrogen-rich water-ice stand up to 1.5 miles high in the Sputnik Planum shoreline, which divides the planet's mountains from its textured and cracked lowlands","url":"https://time.com/4137556/pluto-photo-nasa-high-resolution-new-horizons/","keywords":["Space","NASA","Pluto","New Horizons"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9980037dad137711/698873e2f887dcf3fee9397b/mountainous-pluto.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9980037dad137711/698873e2f887dcf3fee9397b/mountainous-pluto.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mountainous-pluto","caption":"","creditText":"NASA/JHUAPL/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/4137556/pluto-photo-nasa-high-resolution-new-horizons/","name":"This Is the Highest Resolution Pluto Photo NASA Has Ever Taken"}}]}] ```