# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Coztl_ttRfz
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/4133283-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f641ddb890.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-02-18T15:01:01.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Since its discovery – 93 years ago today – dwarf planet Pluto has yet to make a complete orbit around the Sun. Pluto’s distant elliptical and tilted orbit takes it as far as 49 times the distance of Earth from the Sun, a measure of distance known as an astronomical unit. On average Pluto is 39 AU or 3.7 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) away from the center of our solar system. Like Venus and Uranus, Pluto rotates in a retrograde manner, and a day on Pluto takes 153 hours.⁣
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The dwarf planet’s complex surface is covered in craters, mountains, plains, and valleys, which lie beneath a thin atmosphere that expands when Pluto gets closer to the Sun and collapses when it moves farther away, contributing to its frigid temperatures that range from -375 to -400 degrees Fahrenheit (-226 to -240 degrees Celsius). ⁣
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Our New Horizons spacecraft captured this image at a distance of 120,000 miles (200,000 kilometers) from Pluto, capturing the dwarf planet with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). In 2022, the spacecraft’s mission was extended by two years, where it will study the outer ranges of our solar system.⁣
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Scientists believe the spectacular blue haze is a photochemical smog resulting from the action of sunlight on methane and other molecules in Pluto's atmosphere. These hydrocarbons accumulate into small haze particles, which scatter blue sunlight—the same process that can make haze appear bluish on Earth.⁣
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Image description: Black space is interrupted by the tenuous atmosphere of Pluto in the shape of a circle in shades of blue.⁣
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#NASA #Pluto #SolarSystem #Astronomy #NewHorizons

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## Credits

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## Tags

nasa, pluto, newhorizons, solarsystem, astronomy

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