For the first time, NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons has sent back pictures of the sky from so far away that some stars appear to be in different positions than we’d see from Earth.
The spacecraft traveled more than four billion miles from Earth, capturing views of the stars that are position differently when observed from our planet.
On April 22-23, the spacecraft turned its long-range telescopic camera to a pair of the “closest” stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, showing just how they appear in different places than we see from Earth.
Due to the distance between the craft and its home, it was able to successfully perform the first interstellar ‘parallax’ experiment – how a star appears to shift against its background when seen from different locations.
The ‘parallax’ experiment will help scientists measure the distanced of stars and identify where they are located in space.
In 2015, New Horizons flew past Pluto capturing history’s first close look at the distant world.
Sources: NASA and Daily Mail Science (Image credit: NASA)
