Image Gallery: new images of Pluto (May 29 – June 2, 2015)

New Horizons images of Pluto from May 29 - June 2, 2015. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New Horizons images of Pluto from May 29 – June 2, 2015. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

These are the newest images of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft as it continues to get closer. Light and dark surface features are starting to be seen more clearly now, and closest encounter is now just over a month away!

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Image Gallery: new Pluto images from New Horizons

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Composite of three new Pluto images. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Paul Scott Anderson

These are the newest images of Pluto from New Horizons, taken from May 8-12, 2015, at a distance of just under 77 million kilometres (50 million miles). More detail on the surface can be seen now, with a lot of albedo variations. Not much longer now until closest approach on July 14, when the best images then will have 5,000 times the resolution of these ones!

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Image Gallery: first colour photo of Pluto from New Horizons

The first colour photo of Pluto and its largest moon Charon taken by New Horizons. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
The first colour photo of Pluto and its largest moon Charon taken by New Horizons on April 9, 2015. The spacecraft will make its closest approach on July 14, 2015. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

This is the first colour photo of the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. It was taken on April 9, 2015, from a distance of about 71 million 115 million kilometers (71 million miles).

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Getting closer! New Horizons sees two of Pluto’s smaller moons for first time

Long-exposure images taken by New Horizons between Jan. 27 and Feb. 8, 2015, showing the two tiny moons Hydra (inside yellow diamond) and Nix (inside orange diamond). Image Credit: Image credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Long-exposure images taken by New Horizons between Jan. 27 and Feb. 8, 2015, showing the two tiny moons Hydra (inside yellow diamond) and Nix (inside orange diamond). Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

The New Horizons spacecraft, on course for a historic encounter with Pluto this summer, is now close enough to see two of its smaller moons for the first time. The new views also come 85 years after the discovery of Pluto by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on Feb. 18, 1930.

Read MoreGetting closer! New Horizons sees two of Pluto’s smaller moons for first time