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Faces of Pluto (Animation)
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Movie Download Options- Full-Res JPEG (801 x 801) (39.6 kB)
- Full-Res TIFF (801 x 801) (642.5 kB)
Caption:
This "movie," composed of images taken by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), shows Pluto as it rotates about its axis. The images were taken May 28-June 3, 2015, from distances ranging from approximately 56 million kilometers to 48.5 million kilometers.
Visible are dramatic variations in Pluto's surface features as it rotates. When a very large, dark region near Pluto's equator appears near the limb, it gives Pluto a distinctly, but false, non-spherical appearance. Pluto is known to be almost perfectly spherical from previous data.
These images have been processed using a method called deconvolution, which sharpens the original images to enhance features on Pluto. Deconvolution can occasionally introduce "false" details, so the finest details in these pictures will need to be confirmed by images taken from closer range in the next few weeks. All of the images are displayed using the same brightness scale.
Cataloging Keywords:
| Name | Value | Additional Values |
|---|---|---|
| Target | Pluto | |
| System | Pluto | Kuiper Belt |
| Target Type | Dwarf Planet | KBO |
| Mission | New Horizons | |
| Instrument Host | New Horizons | |
| Host Type | Flyby Spacecraft | |
| Instrument | Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) | |
| Detector | ||
| Extra Keywords | Grayscale, Movie, Rotation, Visual | |
| Acquisition Date | ||
| Release Date | 2015-06-11 | |
| Date in Caption | 2015-06-03 | |
| Image Credit | NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute | |
| Source | photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17807 | |
| Identifier | PIA17807 | |
