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Pluto is 7.5 billion kilometers away. Let that sink in while you look at the photo.
by chestervonwinch 11y ago
Pluto is 7.5 billion kilometers away. Let that sink in while you look at the photo.
- verandaguy 11y agoWhile it doesn't take away from the magnitude of sending a grand piano-sized suite of instruments and cameras to Pluto, both the planetoid and the NH probe are actually closer to 5 billion km away[0][1]. Pluto does indeed have an aphelion at some 7,311,000,000km (~48 AU), but its eccentric orbit means that its perihelion is about 20 AU closer to the Sun than its aphelion. [0]http://spaceprob.es/newhorizons/ [1]http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Where-is-New-Horizons/index.php