Just minutes before the long-awaited flyby took place at 7:49AM ET, NASA "teased" the final full-frame color image of Pluto set to be released before the event by publishing it on Instagram. It was taken at about 4PM ET on July 13th, according to NASA, from 476,000 miles away. The high-resolution image was released after the flyby, and can be seen above.
Final image of the dwarf planet Pluto taken by the New Horizon spacecraft (Click Image To Enlarge)
In the above image, we can see the "heart" of Pluto in much greater detail than before, craters that were impossible to make out in previous images, and a great view of the dwarf planet's dark equatorial belt.
The New Horizons team celebrates the new image of Pluto (Click Image To Enlarge)
There are more images of the face of pluto to come. The first true high-resolution mosaic image will be released tomorrow afternoon, and a few more will be released throughout the week. A much larger set will be released starting in September.
NASA jubilantly announces the successful flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft with the following tweet:
Click Image To Enlarge
While the chance is around one in 10,000 that New Horizons will come into contact with debris during the flyby, spirits are high at mission control in Maryland. Ralph Semmel, director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said.
"Tonight we're going to get the signal — and we will get the signal,"
NASA uploaded the following documentary video which details the journey of the New Horizons spacecraft from its early beginning to its flyby of Pluto.
The following infographic explains the mission of the New Horizons spacecraft beginining with its launch in 2006:
Click Image To Enlarge
COMMENTARY: It's incredible that after 3 billion miles and over 9 years, the New Horizons spacecraft was able to flyby the dwarf planet Pluto at a distance of about 2,700 miles from its surface. That is one incredible feat. I can hardly wait for those closeup images of the surface of Pluto. According to NASA, the pictures are being sent back to Earth using technology that existed nine years ago, so tbe process will be very slow and take nearly a year and a half to complete.
I am still find it hard to believe that Pluto was only discovered in 1930 and it appeared as a very faint and small speck in the vastness out outerspace with thousands of stars in its background. BTW, the some of the ashes of Clyde Tombough, the original discoverer of Pluto, are carried on board New Horizons.
Courtesy of an article dated July 14, 2015 appearing in The Verge
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