NASA shared a rainbow-colour pic of Pluto on its social media handles recently leading space enthusiasts to react to it. Many called it a beautiful sight with all the distinct colours gushing forth like that in a rainbow. However, this is not a real image of Pluto but has been colour treated by New Horizons scientists to highlight the many subtle colour differences between the planet’s distinct regions.
Rainbow-coloured psychedelic Pluto
NASA first shared the photo of a rainbow-colored 'psychedelic' Pluto on November 13, 2015, showing how the New Horizons spacecraft can produce vibrant colours. They reshared the image this month via their official Instagram account, which received millions of likes and thousands of comments complimenting the 'beauty' of the image.
Is the colourful image of Pluto real?
According to NASA, New Horizons scientists made the false colour image of Pluto using the principal component analysis technique that highlights the subtle colour differences in the distinct regions of Pluto. The post shared on social media read, "Pluto has a complex, varied surface with jumbled mountains reminiscent of Europa, networks of carved-out valleys, old, heavily cratered terrain sitting right next to new, smooth icy plains, and even what might be wind-blown dunes. New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006 and conducted a six-month-long flyby study of Pluto and its moons in Summer 2015. The spacecraft continues to explore the distant solar system, heading farther into the Kuiper Belt (sic)."
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Netizens react to the rainbow-coloured image of Pluto
After NASA shared this image of Pluto, many were left wondering if this was real or not. One of the social media users wrote, "Oh my god, this is so beautiful (sic)." Another one said, "Pride month on Pluto (sic)?"
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