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NASA's New Horizons Probe Gives Us Our First Look at the 'Person in Pluto'

Humanity has looked up to the "Man in the Moon" for millennia, but this could be one of our first views of the "Person in Pluto."
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By Alan Boyle

Humanity has looked up to the "Man in the Moon" for millennia, but this could be one of our first views of the "Person in Pluto."

The views are getting better and better as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft approaches Pluto for its July 14 flyby — and the pictures have begun revealing surface details. Ian Regan, an image-processing enthusiast from Plymouth, England, combined four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager with color data from the probe's Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera to produce an eerie colorized view of Pluto and its biggest moon, Charon.

Related: Pluto Pictures Put New Face on Dwarf Planet

The picture's orientation makes Pluto look as if it's a big-headed alien skull from a "Star Trek" episode, with two cratered eyes looking out toward the camera. It's a subtle effect, reminiscent of the Viking 1 orbiter's eerie "Face on Mars" image from 1976. Like that image of Mars' Cydonia region, a closer view can easily spoil the effect — so enjoy the Person in Pluto while you can.

To keep tabs on the New Horizons mission, follow @IanARegan on Twitter, check in on the New Horizons mission's website and NASA portal page, browse through a plenitude of Pluto pictures on UnmannedSpaceflight.com — and become a fan of DailyPluto.com on Facebook.

Alan Boyle

Alan Boyle is the science editor for NBC News Digital. He joined MSNBC.com at its inception in July 1996, and took on the science role in July 1997 with the landing of NASA's Mars Pathfinder probe. Boyle is responsible for coverage of science and space for NBCNews.com.

Boyle joined NBCNews.com from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where he was the foreign desk editor from 1987 to 1996. Boyle has won awards for science journalism from numerous organizations, including the National Academies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of Science Writers. Boyle is the author of "The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference." He lives in Bellevue, Wash.