PIA11708: Charon in 'Plutoshine'
 Target Name:  Charon
 Is a satellite of:  Pluto
 Mission:  New Horizons
 Spacecraft:  New Horizons
 Instrument:  MVIC
 Product Size:  1058 x 1272 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11708.tif (1.347 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11708.jpg (279.8 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This beautiful image obtained with the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft shows the night side of Pluto's large, Texas-sized moon Charon, against a star field, lit by faint, reflected light from Pluto itself. The bright crescent on Charon's right side is a sliver of sunlit terrain; it is overexposed. New Horizons was already about 100,000 miles (150,000 kilometers) beyond Pluto when the image was taken on July 15, 2015.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Image Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Image Addition Date:
2017-01-19