A NASA spacecraft is taking some incredible pictures of Pluto

By Jack Mirkinson | January 9, 2016 | 9:23pm

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Since 2006, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been on a mission to increase our understanding of what Pluto—that sort-of planet far, far off in the galaxy—looks like. This past July, New Horizons got its closest-ever look at Pluto’s surface. Because space is, well, space, it’s taken a while for us humans here on Earth to receive some of the pictures New Horizons has been sending, but the most recent ones are pretty stunning.

New Horizons captured what NASA describes as Pluto’s “icy plains,” and the huge mosaic it sent back does indeed look like some strange, bleak and frigid desert. Scientists also managed to get a dazzling, reddish image of the dwarf planet’s “Viking Terra” area.See both images below, but be warned — they are long!(h/t Slate, Gizmodo)