A glowing halo surrounds the dark silhouette of Pluto, spectacularly visible in the highest-resolution image yet of the dwarf planet's atmosphere.
For the future members of the first crew mission to Pluto, this may induce homesickness and comfort, because what's fascinating about the dwarf planet's sky is that it is blue just like that of our own planet.
In the still distant future, the first crewed mission to the dwarf planet is going to miss a lot of things about Earth. After all, they're going to be travelling 4.7 billion miles away from home, breathing bottled oxygen, bundled in awkward space clothing, floating in low gravity.
Seeing Pluto's beautiful, glowing halo and its tender blue sky upon landing will be a reminder of how far the crew had come, and how far they are away from their true home.
This supposition, of course, may still be only something we read on sci-fi novels. While it is still impossible, it is not improbable.
How did we know that the sky on Pluto is blue? NASA broke the news on October last year by releasing an image of the planet and its beautiful blue halo.
Now, NASA released a new photo showing the stunning blue haze. It is actually a mosaic of four panchromatic images-or images sensitive to all visible colors-taken by NASA's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), all of which are shown in approximate true color. The high-res photo is put beside four-color filter data from the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC)/Ralph.
The astonishing image, captured during the New Horizons spacecraft's historic flyby on July 14 last year, was released on Jan. 14 this year.
New Horizons took the pictures as the sun illuminated the scene from right, NASA said.
Experts believe the blue haze is a photochemical smog that resulted from the action of the sunlight on molecules in Pluto's atmosphere, including methane, producing a complex mixture of hydrocarbons such as ethylene and acetylene.
The hydrocarbons gather into small particles, a fraction of a micrometer in size. These small particles scatter sunlight to make the glowing blue halo seen in the image.
According to NASA, as the haze particles settle into Pluto's atmosphere, they form numerous intricate and horizontal layers that extend for hundreds of miles around the dwarf planet. The haze reaches altitudes of up to 120 miles.
In addition, several tiny-looking mountains are visible on the image's right side, as well as crepuscular rays or dark, finger-like shadows to the left that extend from the dwarf planet's features.
