NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker
To commemorate the 3-year anniversary of the Pluto-Charon encounter by NASA's New Horizons space probe on July 14, the craft's mission team released these images showing the two celestial bodies and how they would look to the human eye. The Charon photo was taken from a distance of 46,091 miles (74,176 kilometers), while the snapshot of Pluto was achieved by New Horizons from a much closer range of 22,025 miles (35,445 kilometers). Both pics were obtained with New Horizons' Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera during the encounter. Less than 5 months from now, the world is set to take a close-up glimpse of another object in the Kuiper Belt: Ultima Thule (formerly known as 2014 MU69)...courtesy of New Horizons once more. This historic flyby is set to occur on January 1, 2019. Understatement of the Day: This is an awesome way to start the New Year! Have a great week ahead.
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