New Horizons Flies Over To Pluto And Captures Best Images Of It Yet

WORLD.- It has been 9 years since the New Horizons spacecraft was sent by NASA to Pluto in order to find out more about the once ninth planet and now dwarf planet. Today, the travel tour of over 5,800,000,000 kilometers, will make history by obtaining the closest images of the nano planet up to date.



The images will feature Pluto under the best resolution, even though the biggest achievement of this mission relies on being the first spacecraft to ever fly and explore the (dwarf) planet furthest from the Solar System.

Because of distance, NASA can't promise instant images from New Horizons, while in its maximum approach to Pluto. Firstly, this is due to the fact that there is more important data to be provided and the weight of the images might slow down the process.



As reference, light takes 5 and a half hours to reach the planet, so the images will be sent at a 1000 bits per seconds speed. However, on July 16 we may be able to see the images captured today, and others will arrive on the 20th and the rest in September.



It is estimated that New Horizons will send 60 GB of data throughout the rest of the year and 2016. For the time being, NASA posted an image that was taken yesterday to ease everyone's nerves:

With information from Gizmodo, CNN Expansion and Informador



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