I've now found the answer: > Question: If MVIC is New Horizons' color camera, why is this image black-and-white? > Answer: Either because only one channel was

I've now found the answer: > Question: If MVIC is New Horizons' color camera, why is this image black-and-white? > Answer: Either because only one channel was used to take this image, or because they have only received one channel's worth of data on the ground. To make a single color image, you have to downlink three photos, one each from three different channels; in other words, color images take three times as much data as black-and-white ones. As a matter of fact, New Horizons team member John Spencer has confirmed that only the panchromatic channel was used for this photo, because of the limited time and demands on the spacecraft during closest approach. If they were shooting in color, they wouldn't also be able to do as much with LORRI at the same time. https://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/09171318-spectacular-new-horizons-mvic-haze.html https://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/091713...