New Delhi:
NASA has released a picture that provides the most detailed look of Pluto that we have ever seen. A full world map of the dwarf planet was created by NASA scientists, who stitched together all the pictures of Pluto that were released over the past few months. The mid part of the map shows the side of Pluto.
It was facing the New Horizons spacecraft when it was to its closest. The middle part of the picture has much higher resolution (about 770 feet per pixel). Talking about the edges, they have lower resolution (about 18 miles per pixel). The New Horizons probe flew past Pluto in July 2015 and sent the most detailed pictures of the planet, drawing global attention. The New Horizons spacecraft is up for its next target, which is a small icy body in the Kuiper Belt. (Also read. Pluto and its moons revealed in NASA papers)
However, the spacecraft is still sending data back to Earth from Pluto, which was seen with strange "halo" craters in April.
More detailed maps will be created by NASA scientists once more data is transmitted. "The team will continue to add photos as the spacecraft transmits the rest of its stored Pluto encounter data," NASA said in a statement. "All encounter imagery is expected on Earth by early fall."
