NASA said today that its New Horizons probe is just three months away from reaching Pluto. It is already close enough to it to send back the first-ever color images of the dwarf planet and its moons.
The color image shows two visible objects, both orange in color. According to CNN, the two objects are Pluto and Charon, its largest moon.
New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever launched, NASA said. It has traveled 3 billion miles in nine years and will fly by Pluto on July 14, completing an “initial reconnaissance of the classical solar system.” The spacecraft will also hopefully make new discoveries in the Kuiper Belt, the large group of objects just beyond Neptune.
“In an unprecedented flyby this July, our knowledge of what the Pluto system is really like will expand exponentially, and I have no doubt there will be exciting discoveries,” John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator at the NASA Science Mission Directorate, told CNN.
Pluto was discovered in 1930 and was at first thought to be the smallest planet in our solar system. However, scientists have now termed it a “dwarf planet,” since it is too small to keep other objects out of its orbit. It is just 1,400 miles wide and is 3.6 billion miles from our Sun.
However, Pluto does have its own moons and is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt. It has five known moons.
NASA logo from NASA.gov