In addition to sharp relief provided by rugged mountains, this "sunset" view reveals the depth of Pluto's sparse, nitrogen-heavy atmosphere, which extends 60 miles above the icy surface.
"In addition to being visually stunning, these low-lying hazes hint at the weather changing from day to day on Pluto, just like it does here on Earth," Will Grundy, lead of the New Horizons composition team, said in a statement.
The photo was captured from 11,000 miles above Pluto's surface, and takes in a view of 780 miles from edge to edge.
Zooming in on the photo gives a true fly-by perspective on the planet, including a closer look at 11,000-foot mountains likely made of frozen nitrogen:
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NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
"This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself,” said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute. “But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details about Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains.”
Though the above photo was taken in mid-July, NASA didn't fully download it from the probe until Sept. 13. As ABC News points out, New Horizons will take a full year to transmit all of the data it collected back to Earth.
Also on HuffPost:
Pluto In High Resolution
(01 of07)
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A synthetic perspective image of Pluto based on high-resolution imagery that shows that dark "Cthulhu" region at the bottom along with the large icy plains of the Sputnik Planum.
(credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(02 of07)
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An image of Pluto showing the icy plain being called the Sputnik Planum. (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(03 of07)
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This image of Pluto from New Horizons shows what NASA says is "a large region of jumbled, broken terrain on the northwestern edge of the vast, icy plain informally called Sputnik Planum, to the right." (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(04 of07)
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This NASA image of Pluto from New Horizons shows what may be dunes toward the center along with what NASA describes as "dark, ancient heavily cratered terrain" and "bright, smooth geologically young terrain" (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(05 of07)
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An image of Pluto processed in two ways to highlight its haze. NASA says the image "shows how Plutoâs bright, high-altitude atmospheric haze produces a twilight that softly illuminates the surface before sunrise and after sunset, allowing the sensitive cameras on New Horizons to see details in nighttime regions that would otherwise be invisible." (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(06 of07)
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Two images showing Pluto's haze layers. NASA says: " The left version has had only minor processing, while the right version has been specially processed to reveal a large number of discrete haze layers in the atmosphere. In the left version, faint surface details on the narrow sunlit crescent are seen through the haze in the upper right of Pluto's disk, and subtle parallel streaks in the haze may be crepuscular rays- shadows cast on the haze by topography such as mountain ranges on Pluto, similar to the rays sometimes seen in the sky after the sun sets behind mountains on Earth."
(credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
(07 of07)
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Pluto's largest moon Charon, taken by NASAâs New Horizons spacecraft 10 hours before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 290,000 miles. NASA says the small moon "displays a surprisingly complex geological history, including tectonic fracturing; relatively smooth, fractured plains in the lower right; several enigmatic mountains surrounded by sunken terrain features on the right side; and heavily cratered regions in the center and upper left portion of the disk." (credit:NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
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