NASA’s New Horizons Mission has released a high-resolution enhanced-color mosaic of Pluto, showing a beautiful swath of the dwarf planet’s surface.

Enhanced color mosaic image of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft showing some of the sharpest views of the dwarf planet yet. Click image to see a MUCH LARGER vertical version. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

The image above shows a potions of the “badlands” region northwest of the Sputnik Planum, across the al-Idrisi mountain range, over the shores of Pluto’s now iconic “heart” feature, to the edge of vast icy plains of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices. The images used to create this mosaic have resolutions of about 77-85 meters (250-280 feet) per pixel, revealing features smaller than half a city block.

Note: The names of geologic features on Pluto are currently all provisional, until approved by the IAU.

High-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto. Click to see a GIANT version of this image. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

New Horizons Beaming Data Towards Earth 21 Dec 2015. Created in NASA Eyes on the Solar System App

New Horizons Beaming Data Towards Earth on 21 Dec 2015. Created in NASA Eyes on the Solar System App

Educational Resources

NASA Eyes on the Solar System: Pluto
Lesson Plans and Educational Activities
New Horizons Pinterest Page
New Horizons Image Gallery
New Horizons Mission Overview
View Pluto in Google Earth with this KML file! (This is really cool! Requires: Google Earth)

Johns Hopkins University Press Release: New Horizons Returns the First of Its Very Best Images of Pluto
NASA Press Release: NASA’s New Horizons Discovers Frozen Plains in the Heart of Pluto’s ‘Heart’
NASA News Feature: New Horizons Discovers Flowing Ices on Pluto
Everything’s Electric Post: Pluto’s vibrant mountains?