A few weeks ago, for the first time, we reached the most distant planet in our galaxy and obtained a treasure trove of information about it. NASA’s New Horizons took just two hours to approach, fly over and surpass Pluto a few weeks ago.
Now, NASA has posted a 16-second video composed of real images of the historic event taken by New Horizons when it fly over Pluto. In addition to Pluto, you can also observe Pluto’s moon Charon in the video clip. This video is not the first to take us on a wild trip to Pluto, but it’s the first produced by NASA.
The first shot in the video was taken in early July, just days before New Horizons reached its closest approach to Pluto on July 14. You can see Pluto on the right with its largest moon, Charon, on the left. Pluto was not the only target on New Horizons’ list. The spacecraft is tasked to take pictures of Pluto’ moon Charon which is equally alluring and mysterious.
NASA’s Instagram account provides plenty of cool space imagery and videos, in addition to this amazing Pluto fly by clip.
After passing Pluto on July 14, New Horizons got a slight boost of about 13 mph in its already super-fast speed. It is now traveling at more than 36,000 mph toward its next target, which will be an object in the Kuiper Belt – a thick band containing more than 10,000 objects that wraps around the outer edge of the solar system beyond the orbit of the planets.
The New Horizons will continue its travels at incredibly fast speeds with the aim of reaching an object called 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper Belt, which is almost 1 billion miles from Pluto. It is estimated that the spacecraft will reach its next destination in less than four years, i.e., sometime in January 2019.
