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New Horizons spacecraft flies by dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon
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New Horizons spacecraft flies by dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon
NASAs New Horizons unmanned spacecraft flies by dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. New Horizons has been en route to Pluto since its launch from Earth in 2006 and is scheduled to make its closest approach on July 14, 2015.
New Horizons is about the size and shape of a grand piano and weighed 1, 054 pounds at launch. The high-gain dish antenna is about 7 feet in diameter and is employed for communication with the Earth.
In this image the New Horizons spacecraft is about 11, 000 miles from Pluto (lower left), 23, 000 miles from its largest moon Charon (upper right) and 2.97 billion miles from the Earth.
While little is known about Plutos appearance, here this Kuiper belt dwarf planet is realized as a frozen world covered with various ices, hosting a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and other hydrocarbons too possibly, with a significantly weathered surface as Plutos 248-year orbit alternately brings it closer then further from the warmth of the sun
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Media ID 13064441
© Walter Myers/Stocktrek Images
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EDITORS COMMENTS
This print captures the historic moment when NASAs New Horizons spacecraft flew by the enigmatic dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. After a nine-year journey, New Horizons made its closest approach on July 14,2015, providing us with unprecedented views of this distant celestial body. New Horizons, resembling the size and shape of a grand piano, embarked on its mission in 2006 and weighed over 1,000 pounds at launch. Equipped with a large high-gain dish antenna for communication purposes, this remarkable spacecraft has been our link to understanding the mysteries of Pluto. In this particular image taken by Walter Myers from Stocktrek Images, we witness New Horizons positioned approximately 11,000 miles away from Pluto's surface while being about 23,000 miles from Charon. More astonishingly though is that it was an astounding distance of nearly three billion miles away from Earth. Although Plutos appearance had long remained elusive to us prior to this encounter with New Horizons, here we see it as a frozen world adorned with various icy formations. Its thin atmosphere consists mainly of nitrogen and methane along with other hydrocarbons possibly present too. The weathered surface tells tales of Plutos cyclical orbit around the sun every 248 years - alternating between moments closer or further away from solar warmth. This photograph serves as a testament to human curiosity and scientific exploration as we continue to push boundaries in our quest for knowledge about our vast universe.
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