NASA's New Horizons Sees A Different Night Sky From 4 Billion Miles Away
ITORS' PICK|962 views|Jun 15, 2020,02:00am EDT
Starts With A Bang
Ethan Siegel Senior Contributor
Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, two of the closest stars to our Solar System, were measured on April... [+] NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY/SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE/LAS CUMBRES OBSERVATORY/SIDING SPRING OBSERVATORY/UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE/HARVARD AND SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS/MT. LEMMON OBSERVATORY; EDITS BY E. SIEGEL
NASA's New Horizons, humanity's first spacecraft to encounter Pluto, is more than 4.3 billion miles (7 billion km) from Earth.
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A computer simulation of the New Horizons flyby of Pluto, based on the full suite of data obtained... [+] NASA
At these incredible distances, the closest stars shift configurations relative to more distant background objects.
By viewing stars from two locations separated by more than 7 billion kilometers (4.3 billion miles), humanity has now been able to measure the largest parallax of a star of all-time. The New Horizons spacecraft, most famous for imaging Pluto and its moons up close, has set yet another record. PETE MARENFELD, NSF’S NATIONAL OPTICAL-INFRARED ASTRONOMY RESEARCH LABORATORY
The same effect occurs when you alternate which eye views your thumb: parallax.
More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/06/15/nasas-new-horizons-sees-a-different-night-sky-from-4-billion-miles-away/#a4dda7264cb2
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