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In Photos: Pluto, then and now

From pixels to mountains, a look at Pluto as it finally comes into focus over the years. New Horizons/JPUAPL/Hubble

TORONTO – In 1930, when Clyde Tombaugh realized that a faint point of light moved across the sky, he likely never imagined that one day we’d see towering mountains on what is clearly a dynamic world more than 5 billion kilometres away.

Here is a look at images of Pluto as it has gone from a point of light to a world complete with mountains, craters and valleys.

Two of Pluto’s small moons – Nix and Hydra – are photographed here in 2005. NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team
The Hubble Space Telescope took several images of Pluto in 2002 and 2003. It appears that there may be several features on the icy world. NASA
A movie of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it raced toward Pluto in July 2014. The 12 images that make up the movie were taken July 19-24, 2014, with the spacecraft’s best telescopic camera -– the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) – at distances ranging from about 429 million to 422 million kilometres.
A movie of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it raced toward Pluto in July 2014. The 12 images that make up the movie were taken July 19-24, 2014, with the spacecraft’s best telescopic camera -– the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) – at distances ranging from about 429 million to 422 million kilometres. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Pluto as seen from New Horizons on May 28, 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Pluto and its largest moon Charon, taken by New Horizons on July 8, 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
An image of Pluto taken by New Horizons on the morning July 11, 2015 from a distance of 4 million km. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Pluto’s bright, mysterious “heart” is rotating into view, ready for its close-up on close approach, in this image taken by New Horizons on July 12 from a distance of 2.5 million kilometers. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
This new image of Pluto, taken by New Horizons on July 13, 2015, shows the planet in incredible detail. NASA/APL/SwRI
This close-up photo of Pluto gave Nasa researchers a surprise: a range of mountains as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 metres). NASA / Handout
The photo reveals new details about Pluto’s largest moon Charon in this photo taken from 466,000 kilometres away. NASA / Handout
This new image of an area on Pluto’s largest moon Charon has a captivating feature — a depression with a peak in the middle, shown here in the upper left corner of the inset. The image was taken on July 14, about 1.5 hours before New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto. NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

 

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This new photo of Pluto’s moon Hydra shows the “tiny potato-shaped moon,” according to NASA measures 43 kilometres by 33 kilometres. NASA / Handout

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