NASA releases first low-resolution color movies from Pluto mission

NASA has published the first color movies of Pluto and its moon Charon from the New Horizons mission.

New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern noted, "It's exciting to see Pluto and Charon in motion and in color...Even at this low resolution, we can see that Pluto and Charon have different colors—Pluto is beige-orange, while Charon is grey. Exactly why they are so different is the subject of debate."

The near-true color movies were created using images that were taken from May 29 to June 3 over 30 million miles away.

The first movie is "pluto-centric" with Charon moving while Pluto is digitally centered and the other one is "barycentric" with both bodies moving around their shared center of gravity.

We'll get a much better view on July 14 when New Horizons will be only 7,800 miles above Pluto's surface after having covered a distance of nearly 3 billion miles.

New Horizons deputy project scientist Cathy Olkin said, "Color observations are going to get much, much better, eventually resolving the surfaces of Charon and Pluto at scales of just kilometers...This will help us unravel the nature of their surfaces and the way volatiles transport around their surfaces. I can't wait; it's just a few weeks away!"