                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                               2019 October 20

                               Pluto at Night
       Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research
                                  Institute

   Explanation: The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene, a
   stunning spacebased view with the Sun 4.9 billion kilometers (almost
   4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by
   far flung New Horizons in July of 2015. The spacecraft was at a range
   of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes after its
   closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette,
   the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of
   hazy atmosphere. The crescent twilight landscape near the top of the
   frame includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains now formally known
   as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay
   Montes.

                    Tomorrow's picture: Mercury at Night
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.
