Fly over Pluto
It took 9.5 years to get this close, but you can now take a virtual flight over Pluto in this animation of image data from the New Horizons spacecraft. The Plutonian terrain unfolding 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) below is identified as Norgay Montes, followed by Sputnik Planum.
The icy mountains, informally named for one of the first two Mount Everest climbers Tenzing Norgay, reach up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface. The frozen, young, craterless plains are informally named for the Earth's first artificial satellite. Sputnik Planum is north of Norgay Montes, within Pluto's expansive, bright, heart-shaped feature provisionally known as Tombaugh Regio for Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.
Video credit:
NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation via APOD
#nasa #space #Pluto #newhorizons
Looking forward to what we get back over the next 18 months, with all the data still due to be transmitted. Pluto kind of reminds me of our moon
ReplyDeleteSeems odd to have that variety of textures.
ReplyDeletePretty boring place, just a sandbox w/grey sand?
ReplyDelete