alb3793201

Full Rotation of Pluto

On approach to Pluto in July 2015, the cameras on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured the planet rotating over the course of a full Pluto day. The best available images of each side of Pluto taken during approach have been combined to create this view of a full rotation. Pluto's day is 6.4 Earth days long. The images were taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera as the distance between New Horizons and Pluto decreased from 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) on July 7 to only 400,000 miles (about 645,000 kilometers) on July 13. These images and others like them reveal many details about Pluto, including the differences between the encounter hemisphere and the so-called Â³far sideÂ² hemisphere seen only at lower resolution. Dimples in the bottom (south) edge of Pluto's disk are artifacts of the way the images were combined to create these composites.

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Title: Full Rotation of Pluto

Caption: On approach to Pluto in July 2015, the cameras on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured the planet rotating over the course of a full Pluto day. The best available images of each side of Pluto taken during approach have been combined to create this view of a full rotation. Pluto's day is 6.4 Earth days long. The images were taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera as the distance between New Horizons and Pluto decreased from 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) on July 7 to only 400,000 miles (about 645,000 kilometers) on July 13. These images and others like them reveal many details about Pluto, including the differences between the encounter hemisphere and the so-called Â³far sideÂ² hemisphere seen only at lower resolution. Dimples in the bottom (south) edge of Pluto's disk are artifacts of the way the images were combined to create these composites.

Category: Astronomy & Space

Credit: Album / Science Source / NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

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Image size: 2363 × 2100 px | 14.2 MB

Print size: 20.0 × 17.8 cm | 930.3 × 826.8 in (300 dpi)

Keywords: 2015 • ASTRONOMIA • ASTRONOMICAL OBJECT • ASTRONOMICAL • ASTRONOMY & SPACE • ASTRONOMY • BW • CELESTIAL BODY • CELESTIAL OBJECT • DAY • DEEP SKY • DEEP SPACE • DWARF PLANET • FULL DISC • FULL DISK • HEAVENLY BODY • HEMISPHERE • NASA MISSION • NASA • NEW HORIZONS MISSION • NEW HORIZONS • PLANET • PLANETS • PLUTO • ROTATING • ROTATION • ROTATIONS • SCIENCE • SKY • SOLAR SYSTEM • SPACE EXPLORATION • UNIVERSE