Tuesday 24 December, 2024

This simple GIF shows you everything we learned about Pluto today

Plucky little Pluto.

“Pic we stayed up all night making is now part of the family portrait. There’s something in my eye” – Alex Parker, NASA scientist

TODAY PLUTO STOPPED being a hazy dot on solar system maps, and became something much more tangible.

NASA released its first close up photo of Pluto on Instagram earlier, after the New Horizons spacecraft flew by after travelling over three billion miles for more than nine years.

NASA describes the image as “the last and most detailed image of Pluto sent to earth before the moment of closest approach”.

And here’s what it showed us:

pluto Luke Bailey @imbadatlife Luke Bailey @imbadatlife

Then vs. Now #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/MGSF5eU1NS
— Luke Bailey (@imbadatlife) July 14, 2015

Luke Bailey / Twitter

That blurry image was previously the best one we had of Pluto, taken by the Hubble telescope:

hubb HubbleSite.org HubbleSite.org

Read: Take a look at Pluto as you’ve never seen it>

Author

Emer McLysaght

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hi pluto

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This simple GIF shows you everything we learned about Pluto today

And here’s what it showed us:

Read: Take a look at Pluto as you’ve never seen it>