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First Image Of Pluto Released (But Not Where You Might Think)

Author:

Emma Loewe

July 14, 2015

By Emma Loewe

mbg Contributor

Emma Loewe is the former Sustainability and Health Director at mindbodygreen. She is the author of "Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us" and the co-author of "The Spirit Almanac: A Modern Guide To Ancient Self Care." Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,500 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes.

Photo by Shutterstock

July 14, 2015

That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for Instagram.

NASA spacecraft New Horizons reached Pluto today after a 9-year voyage spanning 3 billion cosmic miles. The first photo of the dwarf planet was posted on NASA’s Instagram account one hour before its official public release this morning.

“We made an editorial decision to give the world a sneak peek of the image on Instagram. We feel it’s important to engage new audiences,” NASA social media manager, John Yembrick, tells Wired.

Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has largely remained a mystery because of its frosty surface and staggering distance from earth – it’s about 40 times further from the sun than we are.

This first image shows that Pluto is actually larger than scientists had anticipated – though not large enough to be carried out of the dwarf planet category.

The New Horizons craft will continue its reconnaissance for the next 5 months, so stay tuned for more out of this world images.