First Surface Photos of Pluto Reveals Strange Features

Images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft are revealing bright and dark regions on the surface of Pluto – the primary target of the New Horizons close flyby in mid-July.

The images were captured in early to mid-April from within 70 million miles (113 million kilometers), using the telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera on New Horizons.

A technique called image deconvolution sharpens the raw, unprocessed images beamed back to Earth.

New Horizons scientists interpreted the data to reveal the dwarf planet has broad surface markings – some bright, some dark – including a bright area at one pole that may be a polar cap.