The first picture released on Tuesday by NASA shows some orange-ish blobs. Those blobs are Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
"This is pure exploration; we're going to turn points of light into a planet and a system of moons before your eyes!" said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colo, according to the press release. "New Horizons is flying to Pluto - the biggest, brightest and most complex of the dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. This 21st century encounter is going to be an exploration bonanza unparalleled in anticipation since the storied missions of Voyager in the 1980s."
Pluto, the largest known body in the Kuiper Belt, offers a nitrogen atmosphere, complex seasons, distinct surface markings, an ice-rock interior that may harbor an ocean and at least five moons. Among these moons, the largest - Charon - may itself sport an atmosphere or an interior ocean, and possibly even evidence of recent surface activity.
"There's no doubt, Charon is a rising star in terms of scientific interest, and we can't wait to reveal it in detail in July," said Leslie Young, deputy project scientist at SwRI.
