Flying Past Pluto
What would it look like to fly past Pluto?
The robotic
New Horizons spacecraft
did just this in late July and continues to return stunning pictures of the
dwarf planet.
Some well-chosen flyby images have now been digitally sequenced to create the
featured video.
The animation begins by showing New Horizon's approach to the
Pluto system, with Pluto and its largest moon
Charon orbiting a common center of mass.
As the spacecraft bears down on
Pluto uniquely, surprising surface features are
nearly resolved that, unfortunately, quickly rotate out of view.
New Horizons then passes just above and near a large,
fascinating, light-colored, heart-shaped, and unusually smooth region now known as Tombaugh Regio.
The spacecraft then pivots to look back at Pluto's night side, seeing an encompassing
atmospheric haze.
Finally, Pluto
fades away in a final sequence illustrated with the orbits of many of Pluto's smaller moons.
Although humanity has no current plans to return to Pluto,
the New Horizons spacecraft may well be
directed next to fly past an asteroid currently known only as
2014 MU69.