NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured Pluto rotating over the course of a full “Pluto day”.
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a series of 10 close-ups of the frosty, faraway world on Friday, representing one full rotation, or Pluto day. A day of Pluto is equivalent to 6.4 Earth days. Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera were trained on the icy worlds as the distance to Pluto decreased from 5 million miles on July 7 to 400,000 miles on July 13. On analyzing the images taken by the spacecraft during its closest approach on July 14 on Pluto, scientists have been able to gain insight into the heart-shaped top view of Tombaugh Regio slipping out of view.
Which takes them more than six times longer when compared to Earth. Still, it’s a huge new development that adds to a long list of Pluto discoveries since New Horizons arrived at the planet months ago. New Horizons only got a somewhat low-resolution look at the dwarf planet’s “far side” (the hemisphere facing away from the craft during close approach), so it might be more challenging to draw detailed conclusions from those images.
The “far side” hemisphere, or the hemisphere furthest away from New Horizons is at the 12 o’clock position, showing us a more cratered region.
Nasa’s New Horizons probe has captured a few stunning images of how the day progresses on Pluto and its largest moon Charon.
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New Horizons is now zooming towards its next flyby target in the Kuiper Belt.
