A Flyby of Pluto Made with New Horizons’ Photos

NASA’s New Horizons probe shot a number of close-up photos of Pluto during the first every flyby back on July 14, 2015. Björn Jónsson took those photos and turned them into this smooth and breathtaking animation of the flyby.

“Pluto’s atmosphere is included and should be fairly realistic from about 10 seconds into the animation and to the end. Earlier it is largely just guesswork that can be improved in the future once all data has been downlinked from the spacecraft,” Jónsson says. “Light from Pluto’s satellite Charon illuminates Pluto’s night side but is exaggerated here, in reality it would be only barely visible or not visible at all.”

(via Bjorn Jonsson via kottke.org)