Backlit New Horizons image of Pluto's atmosphere creating a hazy ring around the dwarf planet. The atmosphere extends up to 130 kilometres above Pluto's surface and has two distinct layers, one at 80 kilometres and the other at 50 kilometres above the surface. It is thought the hazes consist of complex hydrocarbon gases that are created when ultraviolet light breaks up methane gas in the atmosphere. New Horizons has spent nine and a half years travelling the nearly five billion kilometres to Pluto. Image obtained by the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on the 15th July 2015, at a distance of 2 million kilometres from Pluto.