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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Highest-resolution portrait of 2014 MU69

Highest-resolution portrait of 2014 MU69
Highest-resolution portrait of 2014 MU69 This photo is a stack of 9 of the most detailed images that New Horizons took of 2014 MU69 just minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach. The images were taken 6.5 minutes before closest approach, on 1 January at 5:26 UT, when the spacecraft was 6,628 kilometers from MU69 and 6.6 billion kilometers from Earth. NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute, National Optical Astronomy Observatory

Each image had a short exposure time of 0.025 seconds in order to minimize motion blur, and they were stacked and processed to increase the crispness of the photo. The angle between the spacecraft, MU69, and the Sun – known as the “phase angle” – was 33 degrees. The resolution of the image is about 33 meters per pixel.