NASA's New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto on July 14, and the close-up images it captured of the dwarf planet just recently arrived here on Earth. Scientists were particularly astonished with the panorama revealed, particularly of the hazy arctic region, as HNGN previously reported.
An expert, however, managed to stitch together the high resolution photographs taken of Pluto and created an incredible visual tour that shows the faraway planet as if a camera is hovering above its atmosphere.
The video, which was created by Stuart Robbins, a research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, includes the identified land formations such as the Sputnik Planum and the Cthulhu Regio.
"I primarily use these images to map craters across the surfaces of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, to understand the population of impactors from the Kuiper Belt striking Pluto and Charon," Robbins explained in a blog post for NASA.
Robbins's work is quite incredible and some are poised to ask whether he intends to create another video of the latest images beamed back by New Horizons including the closest photographs ever captured of the dwarf planet that show a spectacular sunset, the presence of unexpected glacial cycles and the astonishing details of its mountainous region.
It appears that Robbins is as excited as many people are. "I can hardly wait until we get even better imagery - up to seven times better pixel scale - that's still to come of select areas of the surface and to see what new surprises Pluto has in store," he said in a Space report.
