             APOD: 2017 July 31 - Pluto Flyover from New Horizons

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                 2017 July 31
                       Pluto Flyover from New Horizons
  Credit: (link)">NASA, JHUAPL [2] , SwRI [3] , P. Schenk & J. Blackwell (LPI
           [4] ); Music  Open Sea Morning by Puddle of Infinity [5]

Explanation: What if you could fly over Pluto -- what might you see? The New
Horizons spacecraft [6]  did just this in 2015 July [7] as it shot past the
distant world at a speed of about 80,000 kilometers per hour. Recently, many
images from this spectacular passage have been color enhanced and digitally
combined into the featured two-minute time-lapse video [8] . As your journey
[9]  begins, light dawns on mountains [10] thought to be composed of water ice
but colored by frozen nitrogen. Soon, to your right, you see a flat sea [11]
of mostly solid nitrogen [12] that has segmented into strange polygons that
are thought to have bubbled up [13] from a comparatively warm interior [14] .
Craters and ice mountains are common sights [15]  below. The video [16] dims
and ends over terrain [17]  dubbed bladed [18]  because it shows 500-meter
high ridges separated by kilometer-sized gaps. Although the robotic New
Horizons spacecraft [19]  has too much momentum [20]  ever to return to Pluto
[21] , it has now been targeted at Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU 69 [22] , which
it should shoot past on New Year's Day 2019.

Follow APOD on: Facebook [23] , Google Plus [24] , Instagram [25] , or Twitter
                                    [26]
                     Tomorrow's picture: sand shower [27]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
< [28] | Archive [29] | Submissions [30] | Index [31] | Search [32] | Calendar
  [33] | RSS [34] | Education [35] | About APOD [36] | Discuss [37] | > [38]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [39] (MTU [40] ) & Jerry Bonnell [41]
                                  (UMCP [42] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [43] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [44]
              A service of: ASD [45]  at NASA [46]  / GSFC [47]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [48]
----------
Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] http://www.jhuapl.edu/
  [3] http://www.swri.org/
  [4] http://www.lpi.usra.edu/
  [5] https://www.last.fm/music/Puddle+of+Infinity/Open+sea+morning
  [6] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html
  [7] ap150715.html
  [8]
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/
nasa-video-soars-over-pluto-s-majestic-mountains-and-icy-plains
  [9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2HU3LGdbo
  [10] ap151214.html
  [11] ap161122.html
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_nitrogen
  [13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JC1ijzmH3U
  [14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Internal_structure
  [15]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/
Sputnik_Planitia_nomenclature.png
  [16] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJzKDbnXyH0
  [17] https://www-b.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21863
  [18] ap160402.html
  [19]
https://www.nasa.gov/image/ames/
take-new-horizons-for-a-spin-and-print-your-own-model
  [20]
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Momentum-and-Collisions/
Collision-Carts/Collision-Carts-Interactive
  [21] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/pluto
  [22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(486958)_2014_MU69
  [23] https://www.facebook.com/AstronomyPictureOfTheDay
  [24] https://plus.google.com/u/1/+AstronomyPictureOfTheDay
  [25] https://www.instagram.com/astronomypicturesdaily/
  [26] http://twitter.com/apod/
  [27] ap170801.html
  [28] ap170730.html
  [29] archivepix.html
  [30] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [31] lib/aptree.html
  [32] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [33] calendar/allyears.html
  [34] /apod.rss
  [35] lib/edlinks.html
  [36] lib/about_apod.html
  [37] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=170731
  [38] ap170801.html
  [39] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [40] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [41] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [42] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [43] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [44] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [45] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [46] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [47] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [48] http://www.mtu.edu/
