A NASA simulator lets Earthlings experience noontime sunlight from the faraway dwarf planet Pluto, without leaving the comforts of home sweet home. The NASA project "Pluto Time" provides climate data about when to experience the most Pluto-like sunlight, based on users' location information.
For example, for users living in New York City, the lighting conditions that resemble midday sunlight on Pluto appear soon after sunset. If New Yorkers look outside Big Apple windows at 8:29 p.m. EDT they can enjoy a high noon Pluto simulation, according to Mashable.
NASA's project is one of various new tools it has recently launched. Netizens can even use the social media hashtag #PlutoTime to take selfies for sharing with other NASA simulator users.
The wow factor of the NASA widget is that Pluto is over 30 times farther from this solar system's Sun than Earth is. In exact figures, the icy body is 3 billion miles away, compared to 93 million miles. In terms of sunlight strength, noontime on Pluto is like dusk or dawn on Earth.
The NASA probe New Horizons is scheduled to perform a Pluto flyby on July 14, according to NBC News.
After the spacecraft zooms by the dwarf planet and Pluto moons, the space agency will create an online mosaic of the former planet and its satellites via the "most interesting" Pluto Time images.
The multi-image picture based on the NASA simulator photos will be available in August.
New Horizons' space exploration of Pluto and Ceres could boost the public's general consensus that both outer space bodies should be added to this solar system's list of planets. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially reclassified Pluto from planet to dwarf planet in 2006, by a 237-157 vote of IAU registered members.
NASA's Pluto probe will be the first Earth spacecraft to get an up-close view of the Kuiper Belt object. After the spaceship transmits data collected to NASA scientists, New Horizons will travel further into mysterious regions of deep space.