Space & Astronomy

NASA reveals amazing new Pluto flyover video

By T.K. Randall
July 16, 2017

Image: New Horizons Photograph of Pluto (2015)
Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / (PD) It's difficult to believe that it has already been two whole years since mankind got its first ever close-up view of the surface of this tiny, distant and enigmatic world.

Now to celebrate this anniversary, NASA has released a new flyover video created from the huge collection of images New Horizons captured during its visit."Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system - from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself," the video caption states.

"The viewer first passes over the western margin of Sputnik, where it borders the dark, cratered terrain of Cthulhu Macula, with the blocky mountain ranges located within the plains seen on the right."

"The tour moves north past the rugged and fractured highlands of Voyager Terra and then turns southward over Pioneer Terra - which exhibits deep and wide pits - before concluding over the bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa in the far east of the encounter hemisphere."


Source: Space.com

Tags: Pluto