New images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft show "the spacecraft's first extended look at Hydra (identified by a yellow diamond ) and its first-ever view of Nix (orange diamond)," according to NASA.
"It's thrilling to watch the details of the Pluto system emerge as we close the distance to the spacecraft's July 14 encounter," said New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also from Southwest Research Institute. "This first good view of Nix and Hydra marks another major milestone, and a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of Pluto's discovery."
In the images on the left, you might note a bright and dark streak to the right of Pluto. It was caused by the overexposure of Pluto and its largest moon Charon. If you view the movie, NASA said you will notice the spacecraft and camera were moved to prevent the streak from covering up the images of the moons.
The images on the right have been processed to remove the glare caused by Pluto and Charon. "The processing leaves blotchy and streaky artifacts in the images, and also leaves a few other residual bright spots that are not real features, but makes Nix and Hydra much easier to see," explained NASA.
Expect more long-exposure images though early March as New Horizons gets closer to the icy dwarf planet.
