NASA has released this video simulating the experience of landing on the surface of Pluto. The glorious video has been created using 100 images obtained from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft over the course of six weeks while doing a flyby of Pluto in the summer of 2015. The team at NASA used these shots from onboard cameras to create the clip.
The NASA scientists had to deduce Pluto’s actual colors from the many black-and-white photos taken by New Horizon. Following that step, they then stacked lo-res color images taken by New Horizon’s Ralph instrument on top of the black-and-white photos to determine the best possible interpretation of what an approach to Pluto would actually look like.
The video starts with a distant view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon and then leading up to an eventual ride in for a simulated landing on the shoreline of Pluto’s informally named Sputnik Planitia.