Pluto Flyby

In case you haven't already seen this... take an HD look at Pluto!

Pluto flyby photos thrill New Horizons scientists after nine-year Nasa mission
The Guardian

NASA spacecraft makes history as the first spacecraft to reach distant dwarf planet, the last unexplored world in the solar system.

NASA’s New Horizons probe flew past Pluto early Tuesday, providing the clearest images yet of the dwarf planet.

New Horizons launched in 2006 and has traveled 3 billion miles in the past nine years. It’s not stopping at Pluto, but it flew past the dwarf planet at 7:49 a.m. ET Tuesday. 

At its closest approach, the spacecraft will have been just 12,500 kilometers (about 7,750 miles) from the surface, traveling at 14 kilometers per second (31,000 miles per hour). The pass was the closest scientists have ever been able to get to Pluto.

The stunning image of the dwarf planet was captured in the above photo from New Horizons at about 4 p.m. EDT on July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles (766,000 kilometers) from the surface.

  

NASA released the first close-up photo of Pluto on Instagram Tuesday morning, taken before the spacecraft reached its closest approach.

It was later released on their website, too.

The probe has given scientists a better view of the dwarf planet than they’ve ever had before.

NASA / Via nasa.gov

This photo of Pluto (right) and Charon was taken just a few days ago, on July 11.

Until Tuesday, the best photograph of Pluto was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

 

NASA / ESA / Hubble / Via hubblesite.org

But Hubble was in Earth’s orbit, so the photo wasn’t very clear. But earlier this year, in May and June, New Horizons began sending back pictures of Pluto that were better than any Hubble had taken.

You can follow the flyby on NASA TV.