Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]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.

                                 2025 May 18
     Your browser does not support the video tag. Alt text: A flyover of
              Pluto is shown from the New Horizons spacecraft.

                       Pluto Flyover from New Horizons
     Video Credit: [2]NASA, [3]JHUAPL, [4]SwRI, P. Schenk & J. Blackwell
          ([5]LPI); Music [6]Open Sea Morning by Puddle of Infinity

   Explanation: What if you could fly over [7]Pluto -- what might you see?
   The [8]New Horizons spacecraft did just this in [9]2015 July as it shot
   past the distant world at a speed of about 80,000 kilometers per hour.
   Images from this spectacular passage have been color enhanced,
   vertically scaled, and digitally combined into the [10]featured
   two-minute time-lapse video. As your [11]journey begins, light dawns on
   [12]mountains thought to be composed of water ice but colored by frozen
   nitrogen. Soon, to your right, you see a [13]flat sea of mostly
   [14]solid nitrogen that has segmented into strange polygons that are
   thought to have [15]bubbled up from a comparatively warm [16]interior.
   Craters and ice mountains are [17]common sights below. The [18]video
   dims and ends over terrain dubbed [19]bladed because it shows 500-meter
   high ridges separated by kilometer-sized gaps. The robotic [20]New
   Horizons spacecraft has too much [21]momentum to ever return to
   [22]Pluto and is now [23]headed out of our [24]Solar System.

                       Tomorrow's picture: moon Charon
     __________________________________________________________________

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     __________________________________________________________________

    Authors & editors: [36]Robert Nemiroff ([37]MTU) & [38]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([39]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Amber Straughn [40]Specific rights apply.
            [41]NASA Web Privacy, [42]Accessibility, [43]Notices;
                A service of: [44]ASD at [45]NASA / [46]GSFC,
                         [47]NASA Science Activation
                           & [48]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://www.nasa.gov/
   3. http://www.jhuapl.edu/
   4. http://www.swri.org/
   5. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/
   6. https://www.last.fm/music/Puddle+of+Infinity/Open+sea+morning
   7. https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/pluto/
   8. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150715.html
  10. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia21863-soaring-over-pluto/
  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2HU3LGdbo
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151214.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161122.html
  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_nitrogen
  15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JC1ijzmH3U
  16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Internal_structure
  17. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Sputnik_Planitia_nomenclature.png
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJzKDbnXyH0
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160402.html
  20. https://www.nasa.gov/image/ames/take-new-horizons-for-a-spin-and-print-your-own-model
  21. http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Momentum-and-Collisions/Collision-Carts/Collision-Carts-Interactive
  22. https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/pluto/facts/
  23. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/nasas-new-horizons-to-continue-exploring-outer-solar-system/
  24. https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250517.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  31. https://apod.com/feed.rss
  32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  34. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250518
  35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250519.html
  36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  38. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  39. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  41. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  42. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/
  43. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/
  44. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  45. https://www.nasa.gov/
  46. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  47. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  48. http://www.mtu.edu/