NASA has unveiled the first colour pictures of the haze that surrounds Pluto, along with pictures of patches of water ice on the dwarf planet beamed back to Earth by the New Horizons probe.
The reveal drew early attention this week as the leader of the New Horizons mission said there would be an “amazing” announcement. Alan Stern described the planet as “alive” — prompting many to hope for a big announcement on Thursday.
The colour pictures show for the first time that the hazes are a bright blue.
“Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper BeltIJ It’s gorgeous,” said Alan Stern New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado, in a statement.
The blue in the picture allows scientists to judge how exactly it is made.