Relive the historic Pluto flyby with NASA released maps and videos.
The New Horizons team commemorates the two-year anniversary of Pluto and Charon flyby on July 14, 2015.
The Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera images have been enhanced and composed from compiled images taken by the spacecraft’s Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager.
The videos intend to recreate the topography detail of Pluto and its moon, Charon, showing flyovers across the nitrogen ice plains, craters, and over the highlands of the dwarf planet.
The Serenity Chasma canyon and the curious Mordor Macula polar region of Charon can also be seen in the video.
New Horizons next target is the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, a destination scheduled for arrival on New Year’s Day of 2019.
2014 MU69 passing in front of a distant star
Spotted as it passed in front of a background star for two seconds, called an occultation, the New Horizons team used 24 telescopes in Argentina to gain information about the object, trying to get as much information as possible for a better-understood line up of the spacecraft.
Still 400 million miles from New Horizons current position in space, 2014 MU69 is assumed to have an area of about 14-25 miles in diameter, as Alan Stern, New Horizons mission investigator explained during a press release – “We spied the shape and size of 2014 MU69 for the first time, a Kuiper Belt scientific treasure we will explore just over 17 months from now. Thanks to this success we can now plan the upcoming flyby with much more confidence.”
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New Horizons is 5 light hours from our planet, meaning, it takes our radio signals 5 hours to reach the spacecraft, that is currently traveling through the solar system at approximately 9 miles per second.
New Horizons Flyover of Charon
New Horizons Flyover of Pluto
New Horizons Pluto Flyby on Space.Com:
I will keep this mission updated on Lonely Dark World, enjoy!