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After nearly seven weeks of tense anticipation, the latest high resolution images from New Horizon's flyby of Pluto and Charon are in, and they are truly breathtaking.
OUT OF THIS WORLD | Earth, Space And The Stuff In Between

NASA releases breathtaking new photos from Pluto flyby


Scott Sutherland
Meteorologist/Science Writer

Thursday, September 10, 2015, 5:02 PM - After nearly seven weeks of tense anticipation, the latest high resolution images from New Horizon's flyby of Pluto and Charon are in, and they are truly breathtaking.

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft completed its nearly 10-year journey, snapping photographs on its pass through the Pluto system. The initial results that arrived here after provided a captivating look at Pluto, Charon and two of its smaller moons, however there was a six week delay in receiving more of these images, as the spacecraft transmitted vital science data back to Earth.

With the image downloads resuming this week, it seems that the mission team couldn't contain their excitement at what they were seeing, and released the following images a day ahead of schedule!

Below is a composite mosaic image taken by the spacecraft's LORRI camera, known as a "synthetic perspective view" - although the images were snapped from around 80,000 kilometres away, the perspective of the mosaic laid out on the spherical projection of a globe, such that this is how Pluto would appear if you were looking down on it from around 1,800 km above the dwarf planet's equator.


Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Also released is a more direct view of this region, showing off the smooth terrain features of Sputnik Planum (centre) and the dark, cratered region (bottom centre) informally known as Cthulhu Regio, as well as high resolution looks at the complex terrain bordering those two regions, and capturing how haze in the atmosphere provides a soft pre-dawn and pre-dusk glow on the terrain just beyond the terminator into night.

Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Commenting on these images, Alan Stern, the New Horizons Principal Investigator at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), in Boulder, Colorado said: "Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we’ve seen in the solar system. If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top - but that’s what is actually there."

Night-side images of Pluto were also included in this early release, highlighting Pluto's thin back-lit atmosphere, with its layers of haze and what could be crepuscular rays - shadows cast on the haze by mountain ranges, similar to what is seen on Earth when the Sun dips behind mountains or cloud formations.


Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Far from forgotten, Charon was also featured, with the highest-resolution look at the surface yet.


Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

This image release is just the first of a now long series of releases planned over the next year or more.

Each week, NASA, the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute are planning on releasing a new batch of photos, highlighting the different regions of Pluto and the amazing discoveries that are sure to come from this incredible mission.

Stay tuned for more to come!

Source: NASA

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