Stunning new Pluto aerial tour
Stuart Robbins
The mosaic starts with images of the heart of Pluto – informally named Tombaugh Regio – and the immediate surrounding area that are up to 400 m/px. The mosaic then includes other images of the hemisphere New Horizons flew over that are up to 800 m/px and were released last week. The latest images (as of Sept. 11, 2015) downloaded from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft were stitched together and rendered on a sphere to make this flyover. During the animation, the altitude of the observer rises until it is about 10 times higher to show about 80% of the hemisphere New Horizons flew closest to on July 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI, Stuart Robbins Our tour starts low over the informally named Norgay Montes at a height of about 120 miles (200 kilometers). We head north over Sputnik Planum (bright area to the left) and Cthulhu Regio (dark area to the right).