Webb image archive
Pluto and Charon (New Horizons)
Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are two of the most well-known residents of the Kuiper Belt. This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper l...
- Date
- Dec 13, 2023
- Observatory
- James Webb Space Telescope
- Credit
- NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI
- Archive ID
- 4766
Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are two of the most well-known residents of the Kuiper Belt. This composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left), was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. The color and brightness of both Pluto and Charon have been processed identically to allow direct comparison of their surfaces, and to highlight the similarity between Charon’s polar red terrain and Pluto’s equatorial red terrain. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale.
Credits
Image
NASA, APL, SwRI