Newest Pluto pictures show day in life of dwarf planet
CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s newest Pluto pictures depict an entire day on the dwarf planet.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft capturing Pluto rotating over the course of a full “Pluto day”, in an unprecedented flyby in July 2015. Photo: NASA via AP
CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA’s newest Pluto pictures depict an entire day on the dwarf planet.
The space agency released a series of 10 close-ups of the frosty, faraway world on Friday (Nov 20), representing one full rotation, or Pluto day. A Pluto day is equivalent to 6.4 Earth days.
The New Horizons spacecraft snapped the pictures as it zoomed past Pluto in an unprecedented flyby in July. Pluto was between 400,000 and 5 million miles from the camera for these photos.
A similar series of shots were taken of Pluto’s jumbo moon, Charon. But the Pluto pictures stand out much more because of the orb’s distinct heart-shaped region. Scientists call the heart Tombaugh Regio, after the US astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.
New Horizons is now headed to a new target. AP
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