The Hubble Space Telescope has managed to capture spectacular and unprecedented images of Pluto, the dwarf planet – which lost its status as a classic planet in 2006 -, with three predominant colors: white, orange and black .
The photos show that it is not a simple ball of ice and rock, but a frozen and dynamic world , orange-red in color, which undergoes seasonal changes that are manifested in the hue and brightness of its surface. These changes are probably caused by the sublimacy and freezing of the ice at the poles during its translation movement around the Sun, which lasts for 248 Earth years. According to NASA, it is believed that Pluto's color is the result of radiation from the distant star, which breaks down methane, leaving a reddish carbon-rich residue on its surface.
The images will be the clearest of the dwarf planet until 2015, when the space agency expects to receive new photos from the New Horizons probe , whose journey around Pluto will last six months.
Pluto, discovered in 1930, is one of the most difficult bodies in the solar system to photograph due to its remoteness and its small size, and detecting its characteristics is like capturing the seams of a soccer ball 40 miles away, NASA said.
