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Newest Pluto pics show day in life of dwarf planet

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This photo provided by NASA shows NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft capturing Pluto rotating over the course of a full “Pluto day
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”in an unprecedented flyby in July 2015. The space agency released a series of 10 close-ups of the frosty

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. » NASA’s newest Pluto pictures depict an entire day on the dwarf planet.

The space agency released a series of 10 close-ups of the frosty, faraway world Friday, representing one full rotation, or Pluto day. A Pluto day is equivalent to 6.4 Earth days.

The New Horizons spacecraft snapped the pictures as it zoomed past Pluto in an unprecedented flyby in July.Pluto was between 400,000 and 5 million miles from the camera for these photos.

A similar series of shots were taken of Pluto’s jumbo moon, Charon. But the Pluto pictures stand out much more because of the orb’s distinct heart-shaped region. Scientists call the heart Tombaugh Regio, after the U.S. astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.

New Horizons is now headed to a new target.

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Online:

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/

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