![](http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/nh-apr12-may8-2015.jpg?itok=YCaK9047")
Posted on 05/27/2015 3:42:40 PM PDT by lbryce
What a difference 20 million miles makes! Images of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft are growing in scale as the spacecraft approaches its mysterious target. The new images, taken May 8-12 using a powerful telescopic camera and downlinked last week, reveal more detail about Pluto’s complex and high contrast surface.
These images show Pluto in the latest series of New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) photos, taken May 8-12, 2015, compared to LORRI images taken one month earlier. In the month between these image sets, New Horizons’ distance to Pluto decreased from 68 million miles (110 million kilometers) to 47 million miles (75 million kilometers), as the spacecraft speeds toward a close encounter with the Pluto system in mid-July. The April images are shown on the left, with the May images on the right. All have been rotated to align Pluto’s rotational axis with the vertical direction (up-down), as depicted schematically in the center panel. Between April and May, Pluto appears to get larger as the spacecraft gets closer, with Pluto’s apparent size increasing by approximately 50 percent. Pluto rotates around its axis every 6.4 Earth days, and these images show the variations in Pluto’s surface features during its rotation. These images are displayed at four times the native LORRI image size, and have been processed using a method called deconvolution, which sharpens the original images to enhance features on Pluto. Deconvolution can occasionally add “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 linear brightness scale.
The images were taken from just under 50 million miles (77 million kilometers) away,
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
(Not much if you're viewing the nearly imperceptible difference in image quality and detail, a heck of a lot if you're the author.)
20 million miles should make a significant difference for whatever it is you're pursuing, but in the vastness of space, 20 million miles doesn't bring
much of a prize. 20 million mile in space against the backdrop of infinite space makes our own trip to Pluto a relatively short distance.
But as it gets closer to maximum resolution we should see details that should be interesting to say the least.
I bet there is a Starbucks drive thur on it
why isn’t there any from May 26 or 27?
I can read the sign on the surface:
Welcome to our PLANET
More useless crap. How is this going to help the taxpayers?
The knowledge gained is infinitely more valuable than the gibsmedats.
It will relieve him of the burden of carrying a lot of surplus cash around.
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPTEUROPAPLUTO ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE
It is still blurry. Get the guys on CSI to sharpen that image!
50 million miles is equivalent distance to Mars much of the time, except the amount of light is much less and Pluto is smaller.
I’m glad they are doing this mission, in my lifetime. Much better use of cash than government sponsored manned spaceflight.
My guess is Pluto will look like a twin of Triton.
Yup.
Its a construction shack for the rest of the solar system. All the tools are locked inside.
New Horizons? Are they bringing Medicare Part D to the outer reaches of our solar system?
Once the Space Bridge is completed, President Cruz can send the Liberals there!
Back in the early Nineties I was a member of the Astronomical Society of Las Cruses, one of the members was Clyde Thombah the discover of Pluto. He was a very interesting guy! During one presentation I happen to sit next to him. There on his wrist was this huge Dizney watch with of course Pluto the dog on it. Your pic reminded me of that. Lol!
“The knowledge gained is infinitely more valuable than the gibsmedats.”
My crap is better than your crap?
Infinitely better!
great story! Thanks for sharing it.
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