(NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
NASA has just released the first color image ever taken of Pluto and its moon Charon. The image was taken by the Ralph color imager that is stationed aboard the New Horizon spacecraft -- the fastest ever launched -- which is on a historic mission to study Pluto up-close.
The image was taken on April 9 and sent down to researchers on Earth the following day. A preliminary reconstruction for now, the image will be "redefined" by the research team at a later date. Captured from a distance of 71 million miles, the picture does not give too clear a look at Pluto and the Texas-sized Charon. New Horizons plans to release color images of surface features of Pluto as it gets closer to its scheduled July 14 flyby of the dwarf planet and its system of at least five moons.
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