In Search of Pluto

This isn’t directly related to printed circuits but oh-so-cool nonetheless.

NASA this week snapped this photo of (ex) planet Pluto (shown with its largest moon, Charon, at the left), proving once again that man is capable of remarkable engineering feats:

Pluto, with moon Charon on left

This shot was taken by the New Horizons space probe from a focal point several million miles away from the dwarf planet, which seems like a lot only until one considers the ongoing nine-year long trip has taken the probe nearly 3 billion miles from Earth.

Congratulations to the NASA and Johns Hopkins APL team that conceived and executed this mission, and to those behind-the-scenes designers and manufacturers that built this one-of-a-kind system.