Spazio, cinque anni fa la sonda della Nasa New Horizons raggiunse Plutone. STORY

This image of Pluto from NASA?s New Horizons spacecraft, processed in two different ways, shows how Pluto?s bright, high-altitude atmospheric haze produces a twilight that softly illuminates the surface before sunrise and after sunset, allowing the sensitive cameras on New Horizons to see details in nighttime regions that would otherwise be invisible. The right-hand version of the image has been greatly brightened to bring out faint details of rugged haze-lit topography beyond Pluto?s terminator, which is the line separating day and night. The image was taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers). ANSA/ NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute +++ ANSA PROVIDES ACCESS TO THIS HANDOUT PHOTO TO BE USED SOLELY TO ILLUSTRATE NEWS REPORTING OR COMMENTARY ON THE FACTS OR EVENTS DEPICTED IN THIS IMAGE; NO ARCHIVING; NO LICENSING +++

Oltre a Plutone, New Horizons ha inviato immagini anche di due dei suoi satelliti, Idra e Caronte. La piccola luna Idra, che misura 43 chilometri per 33, sembra composta prevalentemente da ghiaccio d’acqua. Caronte, il satellite più grande e vicino a Plutone, ha invece una superficie giovane, segnata da crateri e da un canyon profondo fino a 9 chilometri

Fonte : Sky Tg24

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