As New Horizons approaches Pluto, the images keep getting sharper. From 5.4 million km on Thursday 09 July, resolution was 27km per pixel.
Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SWRI/BBC
And there is more to come — NASA’s New Horizons is getting closer to Pluto, at 50,000 kilometres per hour (31,000 mph) — closest approach will be at 11:50 UTC on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, just 12,500km above the surface. Resolution of images will be better than 100 metres per pixel.
The image above was taken on Thursday. Why is it just being published now? Pluto is more than 4.7 billion km away. Over that distance, transmission is at very low bit rates.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33491454
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/new-horizons-scientists-react-geological-detail-pluto/
The view two days previously:
http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/pluto-best-image-to-date-from-nasas-new.html
More about Pluto:
NASA’s “New Horizons Pluto in a Minute” channel on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiuUQ9asub3RUlLBXMFGq8aFEPS5yONT2
New Horizons web page, including a count-down-timer for closest approach
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html / whale’s tail polygonal feature band of complex patterns New Horizons interplanetary space probe launched NASA's New Frontiers program Applied Physics Laboratory Southwest Research Institute Alan Stern spacecraft launched study Pluto moons Kuiper Belt performing flybys Pluto system Kuiper Belt Objects KBOs New Horizons project Pluto 350 project Alan Stern Fran Bagenal Pluto Underground 1990 lightweight cost-effective spacecraft flyby Pluto construction several delays launch site New Horizons launched January 19, 2006, Cape Canaveral Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory Earth-relative speed 16.26 kilometers per second 58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph record highest launch speed of a human-made object from Earth brief encounter asteroid 132524 APL New Horizons Jupiter closest approach Jupiter flyby gravity assist New Horizons speed velocity general test returning data about its atmosphere moons magnetosphere post-Jupiter voyage hibernation mode preserve on-board systems brief annual checkouts first flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015 /
