Somewhere around 7.5 billion kilometers away lives a planet that revolves around the sun. This small little planet – Pluto – which was always a matter of discussion for the scientists that weather to declare it a planet or not. But last year in July, when NASA’s New Horizons’ Pluto FlyBy happened, Earth finally confirmed the ninth planet in the solar system of ours.
Even though it is dwarf planet it had so many surprises hidden for us. The icy volcanoes that cover the planet or the various activities of its five moons, New Horizons spacecraft captured so many surprises that the dwarf planet and its surroundings had.
The picture above shows the global map of Pluto.
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As per NASA’s official website - The map includes all resolved images of Pluto’s surface acquired between July 7-14, 2015, at pixel resolutions ranging from 18 miles (30 kilometers) on the Charon-facing hemisphere (left and right edges of the map) to 770 feet (235 meters) on the hemisphere facing New Horizons during the spacecraft’s closest approach on July 14, 2015 (map center). The non-encounter hemisphere was seen from much greater range and is, therefore, in far less detail.
The latest images woven into the map were sent back to Earth as recently as April 25, and the team will continue to add photos as the spacecraft transmits the rest of its stored Pluto encounter data. All encounter imagery is expected on Earth by early fall. The team is also working on improved color maps.
Story Source: NASA
Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
