First View of Pluto's Surface. NASA public domain image colelction.

Description (July 1994) Images of Pluto taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope with the ESA Faint Object Camera. These images, taken in late June and early July, 1994 are the first views which allow resolution of features on Pluto's surface. Opposite hemispheres are seen on the left and right. The large lower images are processed versions made from a number of Hubble observations. The smaller images at the top are actual raw images, each pixel is over 150 km across. The variations in brightness may be due to topographic features and/or surface composition, frost layers, and interactions with Pluto's nitrogen-methane atmosphere. Pluto is 2390 km in diameter and north is up...ID: PLAN-PIA00825