Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 May 18 Your browser does not support the video tag. Alt text: A flyover of Pluto is shown from the New Horizons spacecraft. Pluto Flyover from New Horizons Video Credit: [2]NASA, [3]JHUAPL, [4]SwRI, P. Schenk & J. Blackwell ([5]LPI); Music [6]Open Sea Morning by Puddle of Infinity Explanation: What if you could fly over [7]Pluto -- what might you see? The [8]New Horizons spacecraft did just this in [9]2015 July as it shot past the distant world at a speed of about 80,000 kilometers per hour. Images from this spectacular passage have been color enhanced, vertically scaled, and digitally combined into the [10]featured two-minute time-lapse video. As your [11]journey begins, light dawns on [12]mountains thought to be composed of water ice but colored by frozen nitrogen. Soon, to your right, you see a [13]flat sea of mostly [14]solid nitrogen that has segmented into strange polygons that are thought to have [15]bubbled up from a comparatively warm [16]interior. Craters and ice mountains are [17]common sights below. The [18]video dims and ends over terrain dubbed [19]bladed because it shows 500-meter high ridges separated by kilometer-sized gaps. The robotic [20]New Horizons spacecraft has too much [21]momentum to ever return to [22]Pluto and is now [23]headed out of our [24]Solar System. Tomorrow's picture: moon Charon __________________________________________________________________ [25]< | [26]Archive | [27]Submissions | [28]Index | [29]Search | [30]Calendar | [31]RSS | [32]Education | [33]About APOD | [34]Discuss | [35]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [36]Robert Nemiroff ([37]MTU) & [38]Jerry Bonnell ([39]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [40]Specific rights apply. [41]NASA Web Privacy, [42]Accessibility, [43]Notices; A service of: [44]ASD at [45]NASA / [46]GSFC, [47]NASA Science Activation & [48]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://www.nasa.gov/ 3. http://www.jhuapl.edu/ 4. http://www.swri.org/ 5. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/ 6. https://www.last.fm/music/Puddle+of+Infinity/Open+sea+morning 7. https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/pluto/ 8. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/ 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150715.html 10. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia21863-soaring-over-pluto/ 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2HU3LGdbo 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151214.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161122.html 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_nitrogen 15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JC1ijzmH3U 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Internal_structure 17. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Sputnik_Planitia_nomenclature.png 18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJzKDbnXyH0 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160402.html 20. https://www.nasa.gov/image/ames/take-new-horizons-for-a-spin-and-print-your-own-model 21. http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Interactives/Momentum-and-Collisions/Collision-Carts/Collision-Carts-Interactive 22. https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/pluto/facts/ 23. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/nasas-new-horizons-to-continue-exploring-outer-solar-system/ 24. https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/ 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250517.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 31. https://apod.com/feed.rss 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 34. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250518 35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250519.html 36. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 38. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 39. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 41. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 42. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 43. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 44. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 45. https://www.nasa.gov/ 46. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 47. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 48. http://www.mtu.edu/