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Those represent our previous best information about the surface of Pluto, but they're not individual photos -- they're composite reconstructions from a number of different images taken over a long period of time, as the planet rotated.

> The Hubble images are a few pixels wide. But through a technique called dithering, multiple, slightly offset pictures can be combined through computer-image processing to synthesize a higher-resolution view than could be seen in a single exposure. "This has taken four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to accomplish," says Buie, who developed special algorithms to sharpen the Hubble data.



It's interesting notice that the white heart and the black whale could be found on these maps.




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