NASA’s new ‘Pluto Time’ Widget allows users to see noontime sunlight from Pluto
NASA has released an interesting widget that lets users see the view of the sun from the distant dwarf planet, Pluto, without leaving planet Earth. The web-based widget named Pluto Time is made to calculate the amount of lighting of the sun that is visible from Pluto.
Pluto time calculates the time of day when the amount of sunlight we are getting is equivalent to the noonday glare on the Pluto’s surface.
Pluto is more than 30 times farther away from the sun than Earth is (3 billion miles vs. 93 million miles). That means Pluto gets sunlight at noon as Earthlings get on a clear day around dusk or dawn.
Users just need to enter their location information on a NASA website, and it will tell them when to look outside to get the most Pluto-like sunlight experience. For example, Friday evening's Pluto Time in Seattle doesn't come until 9:08 pm.
NASA is encouraging users to go out and take selfies at the appointed time to share with the hashtag #PlutoTime.
NASA will create a mosaic of the dwarf planet and its satellites using Pluto Time images once the space agency's New Horizons probe flies by Pluto and its moons. The mosaic will be released in August.
The agency said, "We'll highlight some of the most interesting shots from around the world and combine your photos into a mosaic image of Pluto and its moons to be unveiled in August Pictures already are popping up in the Pluto Time photostream on Flickr”.