冥王星的夜晚

2024年11月16日

Pluto at Night
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

Explanation: The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. In the stunning spacebased perspective the Sun is 4.9 billion kilometers (almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was captured by far flung New Horizons in July of 2015 when the spacecraft was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto’s tenuous, surprisingly complex layers of hazy atmosphere. Near the top of the frame the crescent twilight landscape includes southern areas of nitrogen ice plains now formally known as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of water-ice in the Norgay Montes.

Tomorrow’s picture: windblown

冥王星的夜晚
影像提供: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

说明: 这片阴影笼罩的景观呈现了冥王星的夜面。在这个令人惊叹的太空视角里，太阳位于这颗昏暗遥远矮行星的后方约49亿公里（4.5光时）之处。它是由已然远去的新视野号摄于2015年7月，拍照时，这部航天器离冥王星21,000公里，大约在最近距离通过后的19分钟。影像除了记录这颗以剪影之姿现身的柯伊伯带天体之外，也呈现了冥王星稀薄但有意外复杂分层的朦胧大气。影像顶缘附近的蛾眉暮光原野，有位于冥王星南方、正式名称为斯普特尼克平原的氮冰原及诺盖山脉的水冰嵯峨山峰。

明日的图片: windblown