1 Via NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI: Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager -LORRI - were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced color global view of Pluto. The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage. The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles / 450,000 kilometers away, show features as small as 1.4 miles / 2.2 kilometers.
Kind reminder to fellow Redditors that this comparison has less to do with the progress of technology and more to with the way each image was captured. The one on the left was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996, so basically an image taken zooming in from Earth to all the way out into the Kuiper Belt (to even get an image at all is quite the achievement, frankly!). The second image was taken by the New Horizons probe in 2015 (with the image above being released in 2018, though with more muted colors and contrast).
The New Horizons mission was launched in 2006, so the change in technology is around 10 years. But even then, New Horizons passed right by Pluto in a flyby, capturing high-definition images the likes of which are still impossible to achieve from any Earth-based telescope today.
So while the post itself is not misinformative in any way (kudos to OP!), it does leave a lot of ambiguity that might lead the average reader to think this is representative of a leap in technological progress.
TL;DR: Hubble is zooming in across the entire solar system. New Horizons took an up close photo right next to Pluto.
-SaC on January 7th, 2022 at 17:18 UTC »
The right hand picture is from New Horizons in 2015, and is an enhanced colour image1, rather than what it actually looks like.
Here's the actual shot.
1 Via NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI: Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager -LORRI - were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced color global view of Pluto. The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage. The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles / 450,000 kilometers away, show features as small as 1.4 miles / 2.2 kilometers.
Spartan2470 on January 7th, 2022 at 17:51 UTC »
It's not 25 years apart.
Courtesy /u/kuromimi505, here;
Also, per /u/HugoBDesigner over here:
Edit: Added link and username mention.
redosabe on January 7th, 2022 at 18:30 UTC »
I hate we still use this misleading rainbow picture