MAST: Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes
Map of the Universe from Johns Hopkins University and others.....
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) continues to pad its space community résumé with their interactive map, “The map of the observable Universe”,
that takes viewers on a 13.7-billion-year-old tour of the cosmos from the present to the moments after the Big Bang.
While JHU is responsible for creating the site, additional contributions were made by NASA, the European Space Agency,
the National Science Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation.
JWST's weekly observing schedule:
NASA's Unverse of Learning
An Integrated AstroPhisics STEM Learning and Literacy program
Into Plutonian Depths
Pluto Discovered February 18, 1930
Clyde Tombaugh
Pluto Discovered February 18, 1930
animation of the discovery plates
Engineers perform a test fit of New Horizons’ RTG. Image credit: NASA/KSC
The New Horizon Launch Vehicle Ready for Launch
Tom Butler saved to Space Tech and Astronomy
After NASA approved construction of New Horizons in April, it needed to make a choice about a launcher.
It was Lockheed's Atlas V that was chosen for the first exploration of the outer fringes of the Solar System since the Voyager probes. source -
January 19, 2006: New Horizons Launches for Pluto 09:04 AM EDT
Clouds part as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft roars into the blue sky
after an on-time liftoff at 2 p.m. EST aboard an Atlas V rocket
from Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Mission to Pluto
Artist�s conception of the New Horizons spacecraft flying past Pluto and Charon,
one of the dwarf planet�s moons. Credit: Johns Hopkins University/APL
Space is our Future a campaign for Space the National Space Society
Published on Jun 16, 2015
On July 14th, NASA’s New Horizons mission will make its closest approach to the Pluto system, completing the first reconnaissance of the solar system’s major planets, begun over 50 years ago by NASA. With the completion of the Pluto flyby by New Horizons next month, NASA will have completed successful missions to every planet from Mercury to Pluto.
The NSS recognizes the historic culmination of this era of first planetary reconnaissance, for which the United States will be forever inscribed in history.
To celebrate, the NSS commissioned a short video film, called “New Horizons,” which is being released today. “New Horizons” was directed and produced by Erik Wernquist, whose video “Wanderers,” looking to the future of solar system exploration by humans, created a viral sensation last year. NSS member and New Horizons mission leader Alan Stern served as advisor the video. The video was funded for NSS by contributions to NSS made by New Horizons mission partners Aerojet Rockedyne, Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, and United Launch Alliance.
Visual Director: Erik Wernquist
Visual Artists: Mikael Hall, Kim Nicosia, Erik Wernquist
Composer: Cristian Sandquist
Colorist: Caj Müller/Beckholmen Film
Soundmix: Håkan Nilsson/Hajp
The film utilizes photos and textures from: NASA/JPL/CICLOPS/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualisation Studio
Category
Science & Technology
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Standard YouTube License
New Horizons - [Extended Version]
Published on Jun 30, 2015
Ready to explore Pluto? NASA’s New Horizons - the fastest spacecraft ever created - will speed past Pluto on July 14, 2015, beaming back high resolution photos (and invaluable data) of the dwarf planet’s surface for the first time in human history.
We, the members of the National Space Society, believe exploring the unknown for the betterment of all is among humanity’s most essential pursuits. We honor the historic New Horizons mission by commissioning the inimitable Erik Wernquist to create this video.
Support our non-profit efforts in STEM education, policy advocacy, public outreach, and thought leadership – http://www.nss.org/join
Learn more about the mission - http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
This extended version of the video features a scene about the planets in history. See a high quality version here:
https://vimeo.com/132183032.
Watch the original shorter version of this video too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oreeR...
--CREDITS--
This film was made possible through contributions from New Horizons mission partners Aerojet Rocketdyne, Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, and United Launch Alliance.
Visual Director: Erik Wernquist
Visual Artists: Mikael Hall, Kim Nicosia, Erik Wernquist
Composer: Cristian Sandquist
Colorist: Caj Müller/Beckholmen Film
Soundmix: Håkan Nilsson/Hajp
Photos and textures: NASA/JPL/CICLOPS/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualisation Studio
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Nonprofits & Activism
License
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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft begins historic approach to Pluto
After a nine-year journey, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has kicked off its mission to
explore everyone's favorite dwarf planet, Pluto.
PLUTO's Moons
This illustration shows the scale and comparative brightness of Pluto’s small satellites. The surface craters are for illustration only and are not real.
Credits: NASA/ESA/A. Feild (STScI)
After nine years practically to the day, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has officially kicked off its historic encounter with Pluto.
NASA confirmed on Thursday that New Horizons is entering the first of several approach phases, which will culminate on July 14, 2015
when the space probe is nearest to Pluto, allowing it to capture some close-up images of the dwarf planet.
New Horizons is still about 135 million miles away from Pluto, according to NASA, and on January 25, 2015
it will begin to capture long-range images of the Pluto system that will give scientists a better look at the dynamics of Pluto's moons
and help them navigate New Horizons the rest of the way.
Pluto and Charon are seen circling a central gravitational point
known as the barycenter, which accounts for the wobbling motion.
Since Charon is 1/12th the mass of Pluto the center of mass between the
two actually lies a bit outside Pluto�s radius, making their little
gravitational �dance� readily apparent.
Pluto�s moon Charon moves around the dwarf planet in this animated image based
on the data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
As ALMA is a radio/submillimeter telescope, the array picked up Pluto and its largest moon,
Charon, by looking at the radio emission from their surfaces. They examined the objects in November 2013,
in April 2014 and twice in July. More observations are expected in October.
First Glimpse of Pluto
The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons acquired
images of the Pluto field three days apart in late September 2006, in order to see Pluto's
motion against a dense background of stars. LORRI took three frames at 1-second exposures on both
September 21 and September 24. Because it moved along its predicted path, Pluto was detected in all six images.
The image appears pixilated because it was obtained in a mode that compensates for the drift in spacecraft pointing over long exposure times.
NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute
Pluto's Moon Hydra
Watch the difference: Pluto�s moon Hydra stands out in these images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft on July 18 and 20, 2014.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Hydra was spotted using the spacecraft�s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI),
which took 48 images of 10 seconds apiece between July 18 and July 20. Then the team used half the images,
the ones that show Hydra better, to create the images you see above.
The spacecraft was still 267 million miles (430 million kilometers) from Pluto when the images were taken.
Another moon discovered around the same time as Hydra � Nix � is still too close to be seen given it�s so close to Pluto, but just wait.
The Moment We�ve been Waiting For: First New Images of Pluto from New Horizons
by NANCY ATKINSON on FEBRUARY 4, 2015
Pluto and Charon, the largest of Pluto�s five known moons, seen Jan. 25 and 27, 2015,
through the telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA�s New Horizons spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Here we go! New Horizons is now on approach and today � on the anniversary of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh�s birth �
the spacecraft has sent back its first new images of the Pluto system. The images aren�t Earth-shattering (Pluto-shattering?)
but they do represent the mission is closing in on its target, and will allow the New Horizons engineers to precisely aim the
spacecraft as it continues its approach.
The new Horizon ship wakes up!
New Horizons spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA
It�s not quite the cryogenic sleep featured in Interstellar, but all the same, NASA�s New Horizons probe
has spent most of its long, long journey to Pluto in hibernation. So far it�s been asleep periodically for 1,873 days �
two-thirds of its journey in space since 2006 � to save energy, money and the risk of instrument failure.
See Daytime Views of Pluto and Charon’s Rotation
by NANCY ATKINSON on NOVEMBER 20, 2015
On approach in July 2015, the cameras on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured Pluto rotating
over the course of a full “Pluto day.” The best available images of each side of Pluto taken during approach
have been combined to create this view of a full rotation.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
New Horizons also captured a full day rotation for Charon,
too, which you can see below.
On approach to the Pluto system in July 2015, the cameras on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
captured images of the largest of Pluto’s five moons, Charon, rotating over the course of a full day.
The best currently available images of each side of Charon taken during approach have been combined
to create this view of a full rotation of the moon.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
New Horizons Now Close Enough to See Pluto�s Smaller Moons
by JASON MAJOR on FEBRUARY 18, 2015
Animation of images acquired by New Horizons on Jan. 27�Feb. 8, 2015.
Hydra is in the yellow square, Nix is in the orange. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Southwest Research Institute.)
Now on the final leg of its journey to distant Pluto the New Horizons spacecraft has been able to spot not only the dwarf planet
and its largest moon Charon, but also two of its much smaller moons, Hydra and Nix � the latter for the very first time!
The animation above comprises seven frames made of images acquired by New Horizons from Jan. 27 to Feb. 8, 2015
while the spacecraft was closing in on 115 million miles (186 million km) from Pluto. Hydra is noted by a yellow box and Nix is in the orange.
New Horizons Now Close Enough to See Pluto Color Another red planet, April, 2015
The first color picture of Pluto another red planet?
New Horizons, Approaching Pluto, Detects Signs of Polar Caps
by TIM REYES on APRIL 29, 2015
The gravitational tug of war of the unique binary system has forced both small bodies to forever face each other,
similar to how our Moon always faces the Earth. (Photo Credit: NASA/New Horizons)
Pluto Grows in Size While Its Moon Sports a Dark Cap
New Horizons is approaching Pluto and is now just over 20 days from closest approach.
Every day the tiny world looks a wee bit bigger to the space probe, which is screaming toward Pluto,
getting closer to it by 14 kilometers each and every second.
New Horizons' first view of Kerberos and Styx
Filed under trans-neptunian objects, New Horizons, pretty pictures, Pluto, Charon, animation(May 2015)
Numerical Simulation of Nix's Rotation
This animation is composed of four sets of images taken between April 25 and May 1, 2015 at a distance of roughly 90 million kilometers from Pluto.
Each observation consists of five 10-second exposures that have been added together to make the image in the left panel.
Images were extensively processed to reduce the bright glare of Pluto and Charon and largely remove the dense field of background stars
(center and right panels). This reveals the faint satellites, whose positions and orbits - along with those of brighter moons Nix and Hydra -
are given in the right panel. Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra orbit at 42,000; 49,000; 58,000; and 65,000 kilometers away from the Pluto-Charon barycenter, respectively.
NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
Published on Jun 3, 2015
This is a numerical simulation of the orientation of Nix as seen from the center of the Pluto system. It has been sped up so that one orbit of Nix around Pluto takes 2 seconds instead of 25 days. Large wobbles are visible, and occasionally the pole flips over. This tumbling behavior meets the formal definition of chaos; the orientation of Nix is fundamentally unpredictable.
Credit: STScI and Mark Showalter, SETI Institute
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Wobbling and tumbling end-over-end like a badly thrown football,
Pluto’s moons are in a state of orbital chaos, say scientists.
This set of computer modeling illustrations of Pluto’s moon Nix shows how the orientation of the moon changes unpredictably as it orbits the “double planet” Pluto-Charon.
Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Showalter (SETI)/G. Bacon (STScI)
Charon Up Close Reveals Colossal Chasms and Craters: 1 Day and 1 Million Miles Out from Pluto Flyby(07112015)
Chasms, craters, and a dark north polar region are revealed in this image of Pluto's largest moon Charon
taken by New Horizons on July 11, 2015. The annotated version includes a diagram showing Charon's north pole,
equator, and central meridian, with the features highlighted.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
In the final days before humankinds first ever flyby of mysterious and tantalizing Pluto for the history
making up close visit on Tuesday, July 14, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has just delivered the sharpest
and most stunning view yet of its binary companion Charon – and unveiled it to be a geologically rich world
with colossal chasms, a multitude of craters and a humongous dark splotch in the northern regions.
It's obviously quite different in appearance and varies in composition from its larger host.
Indeed the largest of Charon's chasms stretches farther than Earth's Grand Canyon.(...)
Read the rest of Charon Up Close Reveals Colossal Chasms and Craters: 1 Day and 1 Million Miles Out from Pluto Flyby
Kirk, Spock and Sulu Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before — Charon!
by BOB KING on AUGUST 3, 2015
This image contains the initial, informal names being used by the New Horizons team
for the features on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. Names were selected based on the input
the team received from the Our Pluto naming campaign. Names have not yet been approved by the
International Astronomical Union (IAU). Click for a large pdf file.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
PLUTO’S CHARON GETS MOUNTAINS NAMED AFTER SCI-FI AUTHORS OCTAVIA BUTLER
AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE, AS WELL AS MANY OTHERS FROM HISTORY AND LEGEND. I APPROVE!
Article written: 13 Apr , 2018
Updated: 14 Apr , 2018
by Matt Williams
Map projection of Charon, the largest of Pluto’s five moons, annotated with its first set of official feature names.
With a diameter of about 1215 km, the France-sized moon is one of largest known objects in the Kuiper Belt,
the region of icy, rocky bodies beyond Neptune.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Global map of Pluto’s moon Charon pieced together from images taken at different resolutions.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Charon in Enhanced Color
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon
just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken
by the spacecraft’s Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC); the colors are processed to best highlight
the variation of surface properties.
Image: Mosiac of New Horizons MVIC color observations of Charon obtained during the final 6.4 day rotation
on approach to the system during July 7-14,2016 shown in polar orthographic projection.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Flying Over Charon
Published on Oct 1, 2015
Images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft were used to create this flyover video of Pluto's largest moon, Charon.
The “flight” starts with the informally named Mordor (dark) region near Charon’s north pole. The camera then moves south to a vast chasm,
descending from 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) to just 40 miles (60 kilometers) above the surface to fly through the canyon system.
From there it’s a turn to the south to view the plains and "moat mountain," informally named Kubrick Mons, a prominent peak
surrounded by a topographic depression.
New Horizons Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) photographs showing details at up to 400 meters per pixel were used to
create the basemap for this animation. Those images, along with pictures taken from a slightly different vantage point by the
spacecraft’s Ralph/ Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), were used to create a preliminary digital terrain (elevation) model.
The images and model were combined and super-sampled to create this animation.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Stuart Robbins
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A fine view of Pluto’s largest moon Charon and its vast canyon system. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Looking over Charon’s dark north polar region, the border of which is highlighted by several beautiful rayed craters.
Not that it’s necessarily related, but the dark spot reminds me of a lunar mare or sea. On the moon, cracks in the crust
allowed lava to fill gigantic basins to create the maria. Could material from beneath Charon have bubbled up to fill an
ancient impact? Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Speaking of the Moon, the large cracks at left resemble lunar rills, some of which formed through
faulting / fracturing and others as conduits for lava flows. The multiple, fine cracks are interesting.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Splendid rayed crater with an interesting contrast between dark and light ejecta. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
SA busy region on Charon, the meeting place of different terrains. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Splendid rayed crater with an interesting contrast between dark and light ejecta. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Charon’s Twin ‘Star Wars’ Craters Are Distinctly Different; New Horizons Continues Toward KBO
by NANCY ATKINSON on OCTOBER 30, 2015
This composite image is based on observations from the New Horizons Ralph/LEISA instrument made
at 10:25 UT (6:25 a.m. EDT) on July 14, 2015, when New Horizons was 50,000 miles (81,000 kilometers) from Charon.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Countdown to discovery! Not since Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune in 1989
have we flung a probe into the frozen outskirts of the Solar System.
Speeding along at 30,800 miles per hour New Horizons will pierce the Pluto system like a smartly aimed arrow. (...)
Is That a Big Crater on Pluto? Pyramidal Mountain Found on Ceres
by BOB KING on JUNE 30, 2015
Pluto with its enigmatic “crater” photographed on June 27.
The apparent row of three depressions near the bottom of the globe are most likely artifacts from processing.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
PLUTO:COMING INTO FOCUS
The latest photo of Pluto (lower left) and its largest moon Charon taken on June 29.
A large possible crater-like feature is visible at lower right.
Charon shows intriguing dark markings. Pluto’s diameter is 1,471 miles (700 miles smaller than Earth’s Moon);
Charon is 750 miles across. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
ICE CAP on PLuto
Pluto: The 'Other' Red Planet
“Now the unique colors and characteristics of its varied terrains are coming into view,"
said Simon Porter, a member of the New Horizons Geology and Geophysics team. Added Alex Parker,
a member of the New Horizons Composition team, "Pluto's largest dark spot is clearly more red than
the majority of the surface, while the brightest area appears closer to neutral gray."
Scientists hope to learn more about the cause of Pluto’s reddish tint as New Horizons closes in for its July 14 flyby.
10 days of approach - 06201015 - 07011205
Images showing the increase in detail from late June through July 1, 2015
as New Horizons homes in on Pluto. That possible big crater (seen in bottom middle photo)
now looks more like a large, dark patch, BUT we still don’t know for sure what it is.
Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Björn Jónsson
Latest Images of Pluto from New Horizons(Early 07/2015)
These are the most recent high-resolution views of Pluto sent by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft,
including one showing the four mysterious dark spots on Pluto that have captured the imagination of the world.
The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) obtained these three images between July 1 and 3 of 2015,
prior to the July 4 anomaly that sent New Horizons into safe mode.
New Horizons mission releases new map of Pluto
July 08, 2015)
Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI
The latest map of Pluto, made from images taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
instrument aboard New H
although mission scientists admit we are still at the "man in the moon" stage of imaging.
Pluto’s ‘Heart’ Revealed as New Horizons Probe Starts Flyby Campaign: 5 Days Out(July 09, 2015)
The Huge Heart of Pluto
Pluto’s “Heart” is seen in this new image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
received on July 8, 2015 after normal science operations resumed following the scary July 4 safe mode anomaly
that briefing shut down all science operations. The LORRI image has been combined with lower-resolution color
information from the Ralph instrument. Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI
Emotions are rising exponentially with the rousing revelation that Pluto has a huge ‘Heart’
as revealed in stunning new imagery received just today (July 8) from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft –
which has also officially started its intensive flyby campaign merely 5 days out from humanity’s history making
first encounter with the last unexplored planet in our Solar System on Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Scientists Captivated By Pluto’s Emerging Geological Wonders
by BOB KING on JULY 10, 2015
Tantalizing signs of geology on Pluto are revealed in this image from New Horizons
taken on July 9, 2015 from 3.3 million miles (5.4 million km) away.
This annotated version shows the large dark feature nicknamed “the whale”
that straddles Pluto’s equator, a swirly band and a curious polygonal outline.
At lower is a reference globe showing Pluto’s orientation in the image,
with the equator and central meridian in bold.
Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI
Last, Best Look at Pluto’s Far Side and Four Perplexing Spots: 2 Days Out from Flyby
by Ken Kremer on July 11, 2015
New Horizons’ last look at Pluto’s Charon-facing hemisphere reveals the highest resolution view
of four intriguing darks spots for decades to come. This image, taken early the morning of July 11, 2015,
shows newly-resolved linear features above the equatorial region that intersect, suggestive of polygonal shapes.
This image was captured when the spacecraft was 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) from Pluto.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Is There Life on Pluto?
by MATT WILLIAMS on JULY 12, 2015
Artist’s illustration of Pluto, showing the tenuous atmosphere that has so far defied explanations. Credit: NASA/New Horizons
Pluto – Just Look at the Detail!
by BOB KING on JULY 14, 2015
Wow and more wow! In this photo taken yesterday July 14, the large, heart-shaped region
is front and center. Several craters are seen and much of the surface looks reworked or altered rather than ancient.
Resolution is 4 km per pixel. Click for high-res view.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
A portrait from the final approach. Pluto and Charon display striking color and brightness contrast
in this composite image from July 11, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images
colorized with Ralph data collected from the last rotation of Pluto. Color data being returned by the spacecraft
now will update these images, bringing color contrast into sharper focus. Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI
Pluto – NEW HORIZONS DID AMAZING WORK BEFORE EVEN ARRIVING AT PLUTO
The solar wind data collected by New Horizons will help create more accurate models of the space environment in our Solar System.
Image: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the Space Weather Research Center (SWRC)
and the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil (GMU)
This solar wind data should shed some light on a number of things, including the dangerous radiation astronauts face when in space.
There is a type of particle with extreme energy levels called anomalous cosmic rays. When travelling close to Earth,
these high-velocity rays can be a serious radiation hazard to astronauts.
NASA’s New Horizons Makes Major Discoveries: Young Ice Mountains on Pluto and Crispy Young Chasms on Charon
by KEN KREMER on JULY 15, 2015
Chasms, craters, and a dark north polar region are revealed in this image of Pluto's largest moon Charon
taken by New Horizons on July 11, 2015. The annotated version includes a diagram showing
Charon's north pole, equator, and central meridian, with the features highlighted. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
In the final days before humankinds first ever flyby of mysterious and tantalizing Pluto for the history making up
close visit on Tuesday, July 14, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has just delivered the sharpest and most stunning
view yet of its binary companion Charon – and unveiled it to be a geologically rich world with colossal chasms,
a multitude of craters and a humongous dark splotch in the northern regions. It's obviously quite different in appearance
Art Meets Science in New Pluto Aerial Tour
New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise
— a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters)
above the surface of the icy body. Credits: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI
“New Horizons has transformed our view of this distant moon
from a nearly featureless ball of ice to a world displaying all kinds of geologic activity.”
Chasms, craters, and a dark north polar region are revealed in this
image of Pluto’s largest moon Charon taken by New Horizons on July 11, 2015.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Hi Res mosaic of ‘Tombaugh Regio’ shows the heart-shaped region on Pluto
and focuses on icy mountain ranges of ‘Norgay Montes’ and ice plains of ‘Sputnik Planum.’
The new mosaic combines highest resolution imagery captured by NASA’s New Horizons LORRI imager
during history making closest approach flyby on July 14, 2015, draped over a wider,
lower resolution view of Tombaugh Regio. Inset at left shows possible wind streaks.
Inset at right shows global view of Pluto with location of huge heart-shaped region in context.
Annotated with place names. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/ Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
This annotated view of a portion of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain),
named for Earth’s first artificial satellite, shows an array of enigmatic features.
The surface appears to be divided into irregularly shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs,
some of which contain darker materials. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields
of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer)
across are visible. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
“Mysterious Mountain Revealed in First Close-up of Pluto’s Moon Charon
by KEN KREMER on JULY 16, 2015
This new image of an area on Pluto’s largest moon Charon has a captivating feature
— a depression with a peak in the middle, shown here in the upper left corner of the inset.
The image shows an area approximately 240 miles (390 kilometers) from top to bottom, including few visible craters.
The image was taken at approximately 6:30 a.m. EDT on July 14, 2015, about 1.5 hours before closest approach to Pluto,
from a range of 49,000 miles (79,000 kilometers).
Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI
Pluto’s Moons Nix and Hydra Get Real / New Pluto Mountain Range Discovered
by BOB KING on JULY 21, 2015
Pluto’s moon Nix (left), shown here in enhanced color, has a reddish spot that has attracted the interest of mission scientists.
The photo was taken on July 14, 2015 when New Horizons was about 102,000 miles (165,000 km) from Nix
and shows features as small as about 2 miles (3 km) across. Hydra (right) was photographed with the LORRI instrument
from a distance of about 143,000 miles (231,000 km). Features as small as 0.7 miles (1.2 km) are visible.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region),
situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain (left).
This image taken on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 km) and received on Earth on July 20.
Features as small as a half-mile (1 km) across are visible.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
See Pluto’s Icy Flow Plains and Mountains Revealed in Highest Resolution Flyover Mosaic and Movie
by KEN KREMER on JULY 26, 2015
Highest resolution mosaic of ‘Tombaugh Regio’ shows the heart-shaped region on
Pluto focusing on ice flows and plains of ‘Sputnik Planum’ at top and icy mountain ranges of
‘Hillary Montes’ and ‘Norgay Montes’ below. This new mosaic combines the seven highest resolution images
captured by NASA’s New Horizons LORRI imager during history making closest approach flyby on July 14, 2015.
Inset at right shows global view of Pluto with location of mosaic and huge heart-shaped region in context.
Annotated with place names. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/ Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Pluto’s Moon Nix
by MATT WILLIAMS on SEPTEMBER 3, 2015
Artist’s impression of Pluto and its moons.
Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute
New Pluto Images Show Possible Dunes, Crepuscular Rays, Unimaginable Complexity
by NANCY ATKINSON on SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
This new mosaic of Pluto is from the latest high-resolution images sent to Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft
shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) above Pluto’s equatorial area,
looking northeast over the dark, cratered, informally named Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth, expanse of icy plains
informally called Sputnik Planum. The entire expanse of terrain seen in this image is 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) across.
The images were taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Global Pluto Mosaic From New Hi Res Imagery Reveals Bewildering Diversity and Complexity
by KEN KREMER on SEPTEMBER 14, 2015
This new global mosaic view of Pluto was created from the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
and released on Sept. 11, 2015. The images were taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance
of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers). This new mosaic was stitched from over two dozen raw images captured by the LORRI imager and colorized.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Highest resolution mosaic of ‘Tombaugh Regio’ shows the heart-shaped region on Pluto
including ice flows and plains of ‘Sputnik Planum’ (center) and icy mountain ranges of ‘Hillary Montes’ and ‘Norgay Montes.’
This new mosaic combines the eleven highest resolution images captured by NASA’s New Horizons LORRI imager
during history making closest approach flyby on July 14, 2015. It shows features as small as 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) in size.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/Marco Di Lorenzo
This new mosaic of Pluto is from the latest high-resolution images sent to Earth
from the New Horizons spacecraft shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers)
above Pluto’s equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, informally named Cthulhu Regio toward the bright,
smooth, expanse of icy plains informally called Sputnik Planum. The entire expanse of terrain seen in this image is 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers)
across. The images were taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Pluto - TERMINATOR
This image of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, processed in two different ways, shows how Pluto’s bright,
high-altitude atmospheric haze produces a twilight that softly illuminates the surface before sunrise and after sunset,
allowing the sensitive cameras on New Horizons to see details in nighttime regions that would otherwise be invisible.
The right-hand version of the image has been greatly brightened to bring out faint details of rugged haze-lit topography
beyond Pluto’s terminator, which is the line separating day and night.
The image was taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Pluto - Global Labeled Mosaic
This new global mosaic view of Pluto was created from the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
and released on Sept. 11, 2015. The images were taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance
of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers). This new mosaic was stitched from over two dozen raw images captured by the LORRI imager and colorized.
Annotated with informal place names.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Astonishing ‘Snakeskin’ Textured Mountains Discovered on Pluto
by KEN KREMER on SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
This color image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows rounded and bizarrely textured mountains,
informally named the Tartarus Dorsa, that rise up along Pluto’s terminator and show intricate but puzzling patterns of
blue-gray ridges and reddish material in between. This view, roughly 330 miles (530 kilometers) across, combines blue, red and
infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14, 2015, and resolves details and colors
on scales as small as 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers). Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
The image resolves details and colors on scales as small as 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers).
High-resolution images of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft just before closest approach on July 14, 2015,
reveal features as small as 270 yards (250 meters) across, from craters to faulted mountain blocks, to the textured surface
of the vast basin informally called Sputnik Planum. Enhanced color has been added from the global color image.
This image is about 330 miles (530 kilometers) across. For optimal viewing, zoom in on the image on a larger screen.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
High-resolution images of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft just before closest approach on July 14, 2015,
are the sharpest images to date of Pluto’s varied terrain—revealing details down to scales of 270 meters.
In this 75-mile (120-kilometer) section of the taken from a larger, high-resolution mosaic, the textured surface
of the plain surrounds two isolated ice mountains.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Pluto - Farewell view of PLuto's "Atmosphere"
Pluto Spectacular! Glaciers, Hazes, Majestic Peaks Revealed in New Photos
by BOB KING on SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
Only 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains
extending to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right)
is flanked on the left by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes
in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. To the right, east of Sputnik,
rougher terrain is cut by apparent glaciers. The backlighting highlights over a dozen layers of haze
in Pluto’s tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 km).
Be sure to click for a large version to better see the details described.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Just look at those pyramidal mountain peaks right next to those relatively smooth, icy plains.
The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous but distended atmosphere.
The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 km) to Pluto; the scene is 230 miles (380 km)
across.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)
In this small section of the larger crescent image of Pluto, the setting sun illuminates a bank of fog or low-lying near-surface haze
sliced by the parallel shadows of many local hills and small mountains. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 km),
and the width of the image is 115 miles (185 km).
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Thousands of Pits Punctuate Pluto’s Forbidding Plains in Latest Photos
by BOB KING on OCTOBER 16, 2015
Rows of small pits pockmark the ice in Sputnik Planum on Pluto in this latest photo returned
by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shortly before closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015.
Could these divots be caused by sublimating nitrogen ice? It resolves details as small as 270 yards (250 meters)
and the scene is about 130 miles (210 km) across. Click on this and all the images for high resolution views.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
This wider view shows the snakeskin-like textured surface of Pluto’s icy plains riddled
with small pits. It almost looks like the dark areas in the sinuous channels between the mounds were once
covered with frost or ice that has since sublimated away. They look similar to the polar regions on Mars where carbon
dioxide frost burns off in the spring to reveal darker material beneath.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
In this small section of the larger crescent image of Pluto, the setting sun illuminates a bank of fog or low-lying near-surface haze
sliced by the parallel shadows of many local hills and small mountains. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 km),
and the width of the image is 115 miles (185 km).
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
ILife’s definitely the pits on Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio. This photo shows the fainter “ghost” pits well.
Is ice filling them in or are we seeing the beginning of a pit’s formation?
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Psychedelic Pluto
New Horizons scientists made this false color image of Pluto using a technique called principal component analysis
to highlight the many subtle color differences between Pluto's distinct regions. The image data were collected by the spacecraft’s
Ralph/MVIC color camera on July 14 at 11:11 AM UTC, from a range of 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers).
This image was presented by Will Grundy of the New Horizons’ surface composition team on Nov. 9 at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS)
meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in National Harbor, Maryland.
Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Christmas Pluto
Pluto gets into the holiday spirit, decked out in red and green. This image was produced by the New Horizons composition team,
using a pair of Ralph/LEISA instrument scans obtained at approximately 9:40 AM on July 14, from a mean range of 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers).
The resolution is about 7 kilometers per LEISA pixel. Three infrared wavelength ranges (2.28-2.23, 1.25-1.30 and 1.64-1.73 microns)
were placed into the three color channels (red, green and blue, respectively) to create this false color Christmas (2015)portrait.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Last Updated: Dec. 24, 2015
Editor: Bill Keeter
NASA has released hundreds of photos of the Pluto system since the flyby in July,
but a handful of them have supremely psychedelic. A new video released today is no exception.
Possible Ice Volcanoes Discovered on Pluto
by KEN KREMER on NOVEMBER 10, 2015
Ice Volcanoes on Pluto?
The informally named feature Wright Mons, located south of Sputnik Planum on Pluto,
is an unusual feature that’s about 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide and 13,000 feet (4 kilometers) high.
It displays a summit depression (visible in the center of the image) that’s approximately 35 miles (56 kilometers) across,
with a distinctive hummocky texture on its sides. The rim of the summit depression also shows concentric fracturing.
New Horizons scientists believe that this mountain and another, Piccard Mons, could have been formed by the ‘cryovolcanic’ eruption
of ices from beneath Pluto’s surface.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Scientists using New Horizons images of Pluto’s surface to make 3-D topographic maps
have discovered that two of Pluto’s mountains, informally named Wright Mons and Piccard Mons,
could possibly be ice volcanoes. The color is shown to depict changes in elevation,
with blue indicating lower terrain and brown showing higher elevation; green terrains are at intermediate heights.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Locations of more than 1,000 craters mapped on Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons mission indicate a wide range of surface ages,
which likely means that Pluto has been geologically active throughout its history.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New Horizons’ Best View of Pluto’s Craters, Mountains and Icy Plains
Published on Dec 4, 2015
This movie is composed of the sharpest views of Pluto that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft obtained
during its flyby on July 14, 2015. The pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto,
with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel – revealing features smaller than half a city block on Pluto’s
diverse surface. The images include a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains –
giving scientists and the public alike a super-high resolution view of Pluto’s complexity.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
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Our Highest Resolution Views Yet of Pluto’s Surface
by Nancy Atkinson on December 6, 2015
The New Horizons spacecraft has been slowly sending back all the images and data
it gathered during its July flyby of the Pluto system. The latest batch of images to arrive here
on Earth contains some of the highest resolution views yet that it captured of Pluto’s surface,
taken during the spacecraft’s closest approach.
Pluto’s Badlands: Erosion and faulting has sculpted portions of Pluto’s icy crust into rugged badlands.
The prominent 1.2-mile-high cliff at the top, running from left to upper right, is part of a great canyon system
that stretches for hundreds of miles across Pluto’s northern hemisphere.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Layered Craters and Icy Plains: Pluto’s rugged, icy cratered plains include layering in the interior walls of many craters.
Layers in geology usually mean an important change in composition or event, but at the moment New Horizons team members
do not know if they are seeing local, regional or global layering.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
New Horizons Yields Wealth of Discovery
From possible ice volcanoes to twirling moons, NASA’s New Horizons science team is discussing more than
50 exciting discoveries about Pluto at this week’s 47th Annual Meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division
for Planetary Sciences in National Harbor, Maryland.
“X” MARKS THE SPOT OF CONVECTIVE CHURNING ON HOT PLUTO
8 Jan , 2016 by Ken Kremer
“X” marks the spot in this image transmitted to Earth on Dec. 24, 2015 from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
from NASA’s New Horizons’ showing the highest-resolution swath of Pluto at the center of Sputnik Planum,
the informally named plain that forms the left side of Pluto’s “heart.” The pattern of polygonal cells stems from the slow
thermal convection of the nitrogen-dominated ices. Also visible is a a dirty block of water ice “floating” in denser solid nitrogen.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
This mosaic of images from the LORRI camera was returned on Dec. 24, 2015 and extends New Horizons’
highest-resolution swath of Pluto to the center of the informally named Sputnik Planum.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
NEW HORIZONS LATEST FIND: FLOATING ICE HILLS ON PLUTO!
9 Feb , 2016 by Matt Williams
The latest photographs from the New Horizons mission have revealed hills of water ice that ‘float’
in a sea of frozen nitrogen and move slowly over time, like icebergs.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
The nitrogen ice glaciers on Pluto appear to carry an intriguing cargo: numerous, isolated hills that may be fragments of water ice
from Pluto’s surrounding uplands. These hills individually measure one to several miles or kilometers across, according to images
and data from NASA’s New Horizons mission.
Pluto’s Sputnik Planum, showing the swirl-shaped patterns of light and dark that suggest a
surface layer of flowing, exotic ices.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
SPOTLIGHT ON PLUTO’S FROZEN POLAR CANYONS
27 Feb , 2016 by Bob King
This enhanced color view Long canyons run vertically across the polar area—part of
the informally named Lowell Regio, named for Percival Lowell, who founded Lowell Observatory
and initiated the search that led to Pluto’s discovery. The widest of the canyons is about 45 miles (75 kilometers)
wide and runs close to the north pole. Roughly parallel subsidiary canyons to the east and west are
approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide.
Annotated version showing sinuous valleys, canyons and depressions and irregular-shaped pits.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SRI with additional annotations by the author
Cropped version with arrows pointing to three, odd-shaped pits that may reflect sinking of Pluto’s crust.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SRI
>
The new map shows exposed water ice at Pluto to be considerably more widespread across
its surface than was previously known. Its greatest concentration lies in the red-hued regions (in visual light)
to the west of Tombaugh Regio, the large, heart-shaped feature.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SRI
This map of the left side of Pluto’s heart-shaped feature uses colors to represent Pluto’s varied terrains, which helps scientists understand the complex geological processes at work.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI -
See more
Pluto’s informally-named Sputnik Planum region is mapped, with the key indicating a wide variety of units or terrains.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI -
See more
SCIENTISTS ASSEMBLE FRESH GLOBAL MAP OF PLUTO COMPRISING SHARPEST FLYBY IMAGES
NASA’s New Horizons mission science team has produced this updated panchromatic
(black-and-white) global map of Pluto.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
This new shaded relief view of the region surrounding the left side of Pluto’s heart-shaped feature –
informally named Sputnik Planum – shows that the vast expanse of the icy surface is on average 2 miles
(3 kilometers) lower than the surrounding terrain. Angular blocks of water ice are “floating”
in the bright deposits of softer, denser solid nitrogen.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Pluto’s ‘Halo’ Craters
Within Pluto’s informally named Vega Terra region is a field of eye-catching craters
that looks like a cluster of bright halos scattered across a dark landscape. - See more
New Horizons’ best close-up of Pluto’s surface
NASA / JHUAPL / SWRI PRESS RELEASE
29 May 2016 Astronomy Now
The rugged dark highlands of Pluto as revealed by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft at 80 metres (260 feet)
per pixel resolution during its close flyby of 14 July 2015. Click the image to see the full mosaic strip and zoom in.
Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
New Horizons: Imagining a Landing on Pluto
Published on Jul 14, 2016
Imagine a future spacecraft following New Horizons’ trailblazing path to Pluto, but instead of flying past its target,
the next visitor touches down in the midst of tall mountains on the icy plains of Pluto’s heart.
There’s no need to wait for that fantasy trip, thanks to new video produced by New Horizons scientists.
Made from more than 100 New Horizons images taken over six weeks of approach and close flyby, the video offers a “trip” to Pluto.
It starts with a distant spacecraft’s view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon – closing the distance day by day –
with a dramatic “landing” on the shoreline of Pluto’s frozen plains.
“Just over a year ago, Pluto was just a dot in the distance,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern,
of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “This video shows what it would be like to ride aboard an approaching spacecraft
and see Pluto grow to become a world, and then to swoop down over its spectacular terrains as if we were approaching some future landing.”
Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
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LATEST RESULTS FROM NEW HORIZONS: CLOUDS ON PLUTO, LANDSLIDES ON CHARON
Article Updated: 18 Oct , 2016
by Nancy Atkinson
This image of haze layers above Pluto’s limb was taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC)
on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. About 20 haze layers are seen; the layers have been found to typically extend horizontally
over hundreds of kilometers, but are not strictly parallel to the surface. For example, scientists note a haze layer
about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the surface (lower left area of the image), which descends to the surface at the right.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
Candidates for possible clouds on Pluto, in images from the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager
and Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera, during the spacecraft’s July 2015 flight through the Pluto system.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Signs of a long run-out landslide on Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. This perspective view of Charon’s
informally named Serenity Chasm shows a 200-meter thick lobate landslide that runs up against a 6 km high ridge.
The images were taken by New Horizons, Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC)
during the spacecraft’s July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
HERE’S THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION MAP OF PLUTO WE’LL GET FROM NEW HORIZONS
Color mosaic map of Pluto's surface, created from the New Horizons many photographs. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Global mosaics of Pluto and Charon projected at 300 meters (985 feet)
per pixel have been assembled from most of the highest resolution images obtained
by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC)
onboard New Horizons. Transparent, colorized stereo topography data generated for the encounter
hemispheres of Pluto and Charon have been overlain on the mosaics. Terrain south of about 30°S
on Pluto and Charon was in darkness leading up to and during the flyby, so is shown in black.
“S” and “T” respectively indicate Sputnik Planitia and Tartarus Dorsa on Pluto, and
“C” indicates Caleuche Chasma on Charon. All feature names on Pluto and Charon are informal.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/LPI
Last Updated: July 14, 2017
Editor: Bill Keeter
HEY MAP COLLECTORS, HERE’S A NEW MAP OF PLUTO!
View from the surface of Pluto, showing its large moon Charon in the distance.
Credit: New York Times
Global mosaic of Pluto, based on images obtained by the LORRI and MVIC instruments onboard New Horizons.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/LPI
Global mosaic of Charon, based on images obtained by the LORRI and MVIC instruments onboard New Horizons.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/LPI
New Horizons Flyover of Pluto
Published on Jul 14, 2017
Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission
scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features
that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system – from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself.
This dramatic Pluto flyover begins over the highlands to the southwest of the great expanse of nitrogen ice plain
informally named Sputnik Planitia. The viewer first passes over the western margin of Sputnik, where it borders the dark,
cratered terrain of Cthulhu Macula, with the blocky mountain ranges located within the plains seen on the right.
The tour moves north past the rugged and fractured highlands of Voyager Terra and then turns southward over Pioneer Terra
-- which exhibits deep and wide pits -- before concluding over the bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa in the far east of the encounter hemisphere.
Digital mapping and rendering were performed by Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
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New Horizons Flyover of Charon
Published on Jul 14, 2017
Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon,
mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the
many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped our views of the Pluto system –
from a vantage point even closer than the spacecraft itself.
The exciting flight over Charon begins high over the hemisphere New Horizons saw on its closest approach,
then descends over the deep, wide canyon of Serenity Chasma. The view moves north, passing over Dorothy Gale crater
and the dark polar hood of Mordor Macula. The flight then turns south, covering the northern terrain of Oz Terra
before ending over the relatively flat equatorial plains of Vulcan Planum and the “moated mountains” of Clarke Montes.
Digital mapping and rendering were performed by Paul Schenk and John Blackwell of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
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Scientists Discover New Facts About Pluto And Its Moons
P L U T O --- F A R E W E L L
Flowing Ice, Exotic Mountains and Backlit Haze Highlight Pluto as Never Seen Before
by KEN KREMER on JULY 24, 2015
Backlit by the sun, Pluto's atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo
in this image taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft around midnight EDT on July 15.
This global portrait of the atmosphere was captured when the spacecraft was about
1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Pluto and shows structures as small as 12 miles across.
The image, delivered to Earth on July 23, is displayed with north at the top of the frame.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Pluto and Charon a final Portrait
Pluto and its Moons - Space Documentary 2019 [HD]
After action report
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union, a global group of astronomy experts, established a definition of a planet that required it
to "clear" its orbit, or in other words, be the largest gravitational force in its orbit.
Since Neptune's gravity influences its neighboring planet Pluto, and Pluto shares its orbit with frozen gases and objects in the Kuiper belt,
that meant Pluto was out of planet status. However, in a new study published online Wednesday in the journal Icarus,
UCF planetary scientist Philip Metzger, who is with the university's Florida Space Institute, reported that this standard
for classifying planets is not supported in the research literature.
Metzger, who is lead author on the study, reviewed scientific literature from the past 200 years and found only one publication -- from 1802 --
that used the clearing-orbit requirement to classify planets, and it was based on since-disproven reasoning.
He said moons such as Saturn's Titan and Jupiter's Europa have been routinely called planets by planetary scientists since the time of Galileo.
"The IAU definition would say that the fundamental object of planetary science, the planet, is supposed to be a defined on the basis of a concept
that nobody uses in their research," Metzger said. "And it would leave out the second-most complex, interesting planet in our solar system."
"We now have a list of well over 100 recent examples of planetary scientists using the word planet in a way that violates the IAU definition,
but they are doing it because it's functionally useful," he said. "It's a sloppy definition," Metzger said of the IAU's definition.
"They didn't say what they meant by clearing their orbit. If you take that literally, then there are no planets, because no planet
clears its orbit."
The planetary scientist said that the literature review showed that the real division between planets and other celestial bodies,
such as asteroids, occurred in the early 1950s when Gerard Kuiper published a paper that made the distinction based on how they were formed.
However, even this reason is no longer considered a factor that determines if a celestial body is a planet, Metzger said.
Study co-author Kirby Runyon, with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said the IAU's definition
was erroneous since the literature review showed that clearing orbit is not a standard that is used for distinguishing asteroids from planets,
as the IAU claimed when crafting the 2006 definition of planets.
"We showed that this is a false historical claim," Runyon said. "It is therefore fallacious to apply the same reasoning to Pluto,"
he said. Metzger said that the definition of a planet should be based on its intrinsic properties, rather than ones that can change,
such as the dynamics of a planet's orbit. "Dynamics are not constant, they are constantly changing," Metzger said. "So, they are
not the fundamental description of a body, they are just the occupation of a body at a current era."
Instead, Metzger recommends classifying a planet based on if it is large enough that its gravity allows it to become spherical in shape.
"And that's not just an arbitrary definition, Metzger said. "It turns out this is an important milestone in the evolution of a planetary body,
because apparently when it happens, it initiates active geology in the body."
Pluto, for instance, has an underground ocean, a multilayer atmosphere, organic compounds, evidence of ancient lakes and multiple moons,
he said.
"It's more dynamic and alive than Mars," Metzger said. "The only planet that has more complex geology is the Earth."
A Bunch of New Names for Pluto’s Surface Features Were Just Approved
14 of Pluto’s surface features have new official names now.
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Ross Beyer
The Clearest Image of Pluto captured by the New Horizons spacecraft
Kirby Runyon
This is a false color image taken with the camera named Ralph,
specifically a component of it called MVIC, for multispectral visible and infrared camera.
The highest resolution picture was actually taken with the LORRI camera
of the glacier called Sputnik planitia near the daylight night time boundary.
So this is not actually the clearest image of Pluto, but it is indeed impressive.
If you were flying by Pluto, the colors would be much more muted and would be sort of a taupe color
What NASA Discovered on the Far Side of Pluto Is Stunning! (Real Images and Real Voice Over)
Have you ever seen the far side of Pluto? Now you can! Use code v101space at the link below to get an
exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan:
When NASA's New Horizons visited Pluto, it passed by in a few hours. So we only got to see incredible close-up images
of Pluto's illuminated side, but what about the opposite hemisphere? Pluto's far side? Well fortunately
New Horizons was snapping photos of Pluto during its approach, revealing every angle of the icy dwarf planet.
This is the side of Pluto you have never seen before.
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There Are Winds Blowing On Pluto, Driven by Frozen Nitrogen
Earth and Pluto don’t have much in common. Earth is a vibrant, living world, whereas Pluto is cold, distant and lifeless.
But one thing they do have in common is nitrogen. Earth’s atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, and Pluto’s primary atmospheric
constituent is also nitrogen, although the exact percentage is unclear.
On Pluto, where the surface temperature is about 42 Kelvin (-231 Celsius) most of that nitrogen is frozen.
A new study says that Pluto’s frozen nitrogen drives the planet’s winds, and shapes its feature surfaces.
The New Horizons team informally named Pluto’s heart-shaped feature “Tombaugh Regio” in honor of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh,
who discovered the dwarf planet. The bright expanse of the western lobe of Pluto’s “heart” is informally called Sputnik Planum.
Above left: Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of land-forms that have their own distinct colors, telling a complex
geological and climatological story.
Credit: Courtesy NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
This annotated image of the southern region of Sputnik Planitia illustrates its complexity,
including the polygonal shapes of Pluto’s icy plains, its two mountain ranges, and a region where
it appears that ancient, heavily-cratered terrain has been invaded by much newer icy deposits.
The large crater highlighted in the image is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide, approximately
the size of the greater Washington, DC area.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Hi Res mosaic of ‘Tombaugh Regio’ shows the heart-shaped region on Pluto and focuses on icy mountain ranges
of ‘Norgay Montes’ and ice plains of ‘Sputnik Planum.’ The new mosaic combines highest resolution imagery
captured by NASA’s New Horizons LORRI imager during history making closest approach flyby on July 14, 2015,
draped over a wider, lower resolution view of Tombaugh Regio. Inset at left shows possible wind streaks.
Inset at right shows global view of Pluto with location of huge heart-shaped region in context. Annotated with place names.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/ Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
The vast nitrogen ice plains of Pluto’s informally named Sputnik Planum – the western half of Pluto’s “heart”.
Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back
toward the sun and captured a near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending
to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left)
by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes
in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline.
Image Credit: By NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute. Public Domain
A digital elevation model (DEM) of Sputnik Planitia.
Image Credit: Bertrand et al 2020
A simple geological map showing bright N2 ice plains (red), dark N2 ice plains (blue),
mountains and hills lining the western rim of Sputnik Planitia (green), and bright pitted uplands of east Tombaugh Regio (cyan).
Yellow line maps the continuous boundary between the bright and dark plains, as well as the northern boundary of the bright pitted uplands.
COLOR="BLACK"> Black box indicates the location of features in Sputnik Planitia interpreted as wind streaks,
as mapped in purple in the inset. Blue box and white arrows indicates the location of dark troughs,
possibly filled with dark materials.
Image Credit: Bertrand et al 2020
A map of diurnal mean horizontal winds in Sputnik Planitia obtained with the researchers’ Global Climate Model for July 2015
at 1000 m above the surface. Yellow line replicates the bright/dark boundary in the above geological map.
Image Credit: Bertrand et al 2020.
Pluto’s bladed terrain as seen from New Horizons during its July 2015 flyby.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
How NASA Is Steering New Horizons Toward
a Tiny Space Rock in the Kuiper Belt
In a series of four fuel burns completed today, New Horizons has closed a gap
of more than 3.5 million miles between its trajectory and MU69’s orbit.
The graphic above exaggerates the distance traveled between each burn to show the impact
of each course correction. At a proper scale relative to the nearly 870 million mile distance
remaining between New Horizons and Pluto, the four burns would appear to be stacked directly on top of one another.
CREDIT THEN ONE/WIRED
Orbits of Pluto and PT1, New Horizons' flyby targets
NASA and New Horizons team pick post-Pluto target …
by ALAN BOYLE on AUGUST 28, 2015
An artist’s conception shows the New Horizons spacecraft flying past a
Pluto-like object in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy material that lies billions of miles away from the sun.
(Credit: Alex Parker / NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI)
Pluto's Post Mission Map Proposal
This chart shows the path of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft toward its next potential target,
the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, also known as PT1. Other dwarf planets are indicated on the chart as well.
(Credit: Alex Parker / NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI)
NASA Approves New Horizons Extended KBO Mission,(July 2016)
New Horizons trajectory and the orbits of Pluto and 2014 MU69.
New Horizons Maneuvers Toward Potential Kuiper Belt Target
by NANCY ATKINSON on OCTOBER 27, 2015
Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt.
(Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Steve Gribben)
New Horizons Takes Closest Image Ever of a Kuiper Belt Object
by NANCY ATKINSON on DECEMBER 4, 2015
New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took this image on Nov. 2, 2015
of a 90-mile (150-kilometer)-wide ancient Kuiper Belt Object named 1994 JR1, moving against a background of stars.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Pluto Probe Spots Distant Dwarf Planet Quaoar (Photos)
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | August 31, 2016 03:12pm ET
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this image of the dwarf planet Quaoar in July 2016,
from a distance of 1.3 billion miles (2.1 billion kilometers).
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
NASA's New Horizons probe captured these images of the dwarf planet Quaoar on July 13-14, 2016,
from a distance of 1.3 billion miles (2.1 billion kilometers).
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
A BORED NEW HORIZONS SPACECRAFT TAKES PART TIME JOB TO FILL THE TIME
Artist's impression of New Horizons' close encounter with the Pluto–Charon system.
Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben
Measuring the light from the Cosmic Optical Background is a way to test cosmological models
that explain how the structure and evolution of the Universe.
Credit: 2MASS/Caltech
Image: In preparation for the New Horizons flyby of 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019,
the spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took a series of 10-second exposures
of the background star field near the location of its target Kuiper Belt object (KBO).
This composite image is made from 45 of these 10-second exposures taken on Jan. 28, 2017.
The yellow diamond marks the predicted location of MU69 on approach,
but the KBO itself was too far from the spacecraft (877 million kilometers) even for LORRI’s telescopic “eye”
to detect. New Horizons expects to start seeing MU69 with LORRI in September of 2018 – and the team will use
these newly acquired images of the background field to help prepare for that search on approach.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New Horizons Sees its Next Target for the First Time: Ultima Thule. Flyby Happens January 1, 2019
n July of 2015, NASA’s New Horizons mission made history when it became the first spacecraft
to conduct a flyby of Pluto. Since that time, the spacecraft’s mission was extended
so it could make its way farther into the outer Solar System and become the first spacecraft
to explore some Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). It’s first objective will be the KBO known as 2014 MU69,
which was recently given the nickname “Ultima Thule” (“ultima thoo-lee”).
Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69 (aka. Ultima Thule)
on Jan. 1st, 2019. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Steve Gribben
As Hal Weaver, the New Horizons project scientist and LORRI principal investigator
from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), explained in a recent NASA press release:
Image: Ultima Thule as seen at 6.47 billion kilometers (4.01 billion miles) from the Sun
and 3.87 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from the New Horizons spacecraft
. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
The Pictures are Here! New Horizons Close Up View of 2014 MU69
On December 31st, 2018, NASA and the New Horizon‘s team (plus millions of people watching the live stream at home)
rang in the New Year by watching the New Horizons mission make the first rendezvous in history with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO).
About thirty minutes after the probe conducted its flyby of Ultima Thule (2014 MU69), the mission controllers were treated
to the first clear images ever taken of a KBO.
Composite of two images (left) taken by New Horizons’ high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
and an artist’s impression (right) of Ultima Thule’s appearance
. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI; sketch courtesy of James Tuttle Keane
The first color image of Ultima Thule, taken at a distance of 137,000 km (85,000 mi)
at 04:08 am UTC on January 1st, 2019.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Rotation Animation of Ultima Thule (resized)
This movie shows the propeller-like rotation of Ultima Thule in the seven hours between 20:00 UT (3 p.m. ET) on Dec. 31, 2018,
and 05:01 UT (12:01 a.m.) on Jan. 1, 2019, as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard NASA's New Horizons
as the spacecraft sped toward its close encounter with the Kuiper Belt object at 05:33 UT (12:33 a.m. ET) on Jan. 1.
During this deep-space photo shoot – part of the farthest planetary flyby in history – New Horizons' range to Ultima Thule
decreased from 310,000 miles (500,000 kilometers, farther than the distance from the Earth to the Moon)
to just 17,100 miles (28,000 kilometers), during which the images became steadily larger and more detailed.
All the images have been sharpened using scientific techniques that enhance detail. The original image scale
is 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) per pixel in the first frame, and 0.08 miles (0.14 kilometers) per pixel in the last frame.
The rotation period of Ultima Thule is about 16 hours, so the movie covers a little under half a rotation.
Among other things, the New Horizons science team will use these images to help determine the three-dimensional
shape of Ultima Thule, in order to better understand its nature and origin.
This image sequence corrects for the changing distance, so that Ultima Thule (officially named 2014 MU69) appears
at constant size but becomes more detailed as the approach progresses.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
[The video loops four times]
NEW: #UltimaThule, now in higher-res! 📸 Both lobes now show many intriguing light & dark patterns of unknown origin,
which may reveal clues about how it was assembled during the formation of the #solarsystem!
Credit: John Hopkins University
Artist’s concept of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, which was based on telescope observations
made at Patagonia, Argentina on July 17, 2017, when MU69 passed in front of a star.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Alex Parker
NEW: #UltimaThule, now in higher-res! 📸 Both lobes now show many intriguing light & dark patterns of unknown origin,
which may reveal clues about how it was assembled during the formation of the
#solarsystem! Credit:John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab.
New Horizons took this shot of MU69 as it sped away from its encounter
On December 31st, 2018, NASA’s New Horizons mission made history by being the first spacecraft
to rendezvous with the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) named Ultima Thule (2014 MU69).
This came roughly two and a half years after New Horizons became the first mission
in history to conduct a flyby of Pluto. This latest encounter led to some stunning images
of the KBO as the spacecraft made it’s approach.
The Truly Odd Shape of Ultima Thule
Mission scientists created this "departure movie" from 14 different images taken by the New Horizons
Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) shortly after the spacecraft flew past the Kuiper Belt
object nicknamed Ultima Thule (officially named 2014 MU69) on Jan. 1, 2019.
The central frame of this sequence was taken on Jan. 1 at 05:42:42 UT (12:42 a.m. EST),
when New Horizons was 5,494 miles (8,862 kilometers) beyond Ultima Thule,
some 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion kilometers) from Earth. The object’s illuminated crescent is blurred
in the individual frames because a relatively long exposure time was used during this rapid scan to boost
the camera’s signal level – but the science team combined and processed the images to remove the blurring
and sharpen the thin crescent. This is the farthest movie of any object in our Solar System ever made by any spacecraft.
The images reveal an outline of the “hidden” portion of the Ultima Thule that was not illuminated by the Sun
as the spacecraft zipped by, but can be “traced out” because it blocked the view to background stars also in the image.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Flyby images of Ultima Thule taken by the New Horizons probe on Jan. 1st, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/NOAO
Now You Can See MU69 in Thrilling 3D
Got your 3D glasses handy? Then prepare for the most realistic views of Ultima Thule yet!
Yes, it seems that every few weeks, there’s a new image of the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO)
that promises the same thing. But whereas all the previous contenders were higher-resolution images
that allowed for a more discernible level of detail, these images are the closest
we will get to seeing the real thing up close!
For this view, change your focus from the image by looking “through” it and into the distance.
This will create the illusion of a third image in the middle; try setting your focus on that.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/NOAO
For this view, cross your eyes until the pair of images merges into one.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/NOAO
New Data, New View
This animation depicts a shape model of Ultima Thule created by the New Horizons science
team based on its analysis of all the pre-flyby images sent to Earth so far.
The first half of the movie mimics the view from the New Horizons spacecraft
as it approached Ultima Thule and has the “snowman” shape that was so frequently
mentioned in the days surrounding the New Year’s 2019 flyby.
The movie then rotates to a side-view that illustrates what New Horizons might have seen had
its cameras been pointing toward Ultima Thule only a few minutes after closest approach.
While that wasn’t the case, mission scientists have been able to piece together a model
of this side-view, which has been at least partially confirmed by a set of crescent images
of Ultima Thule (link). There is still considerable uncertainty in the sizes of
“Ultima” (the larger section, or lobe) and “Thule” (the smaller) in the vertical
dimension, but it’s now clear that Ultima looks more like a pancake than a sphere, and that Thule is also very non-spherical.
The rotation in this animation is not the object’s actual rotation, but is used purely to illustrate its shape.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Zooming in on Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule
More space news and info at: - the farthest object ever explored
is slowly revealing its secrets, as scientists piece together the puzzles of Ultima Thule –
the Kuiper Belt object NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past on New Year’s Day, four billion miles from Earth.
The SwRI-developed Pluto orbital tour design shows scientific objectives can be met with only
tiny fuel resources and numerous gravity assists using Pluto’s giant moon Charon.
Credit: Southwest Research Institute.
What sort of missions are we talking about? Amanda Zangari’s separate study for this group has looked
at the 45 largest Kuiper Belt objects and dwarf planets (covering “the most desirable and scientifically interesting targets”)
with launches possible between 2025 and 2040. How these trajectories might be accomplished is presented
in a paper that has been accepted by the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.
This figure depicts an electric propulsion spacecraft leaving Pluto orbit, flying by other small Kuiper Belt
objects and then reaching the dwarf planet 2002 MS4 as just one example of the “gold standard” Pluto orbiter-Kuiper Belt
explorer mission discovered by the SwRI study team. Credit: Southwest Research Institute.
We’ll need a good name for the Pluto orbiter/Kuiper Belt explorer mission, so start thinking about it
now as we begin hoping that such a mission will be funded. Back to Stern for the conclusion:
NASA is Now Considering a Pluto Orbiter Mission
NASA’s New Horizons mission taught us a lot about Pluto, the ice dwarf planet. But the spacecraft
sped past Pluto so quickly, we only got high-resolution images of one side of the planet,
the so-called “encounter side.” New Horizons gave us a big leap in understanding, but in a way,
it asked more questions than it answered.
New Horizons captured plenty of high-resolution images of the near side, or encounter side.
But images of the far side are much lower resolution because the spacecraft sped by so quickly.
Image: NASA/JPL/New Horizons
A global mosaic of Pluto. The center of the image is Pluto’s encounter side, where New Horizons
was able to capture high-resolutions as it sped past. On the right and the left are the non-encounter side,
imaged at a much lower resolution when New Horizons was further away.
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Ross Beyer
This image of Pluto’s encounter side was taken only minutes after New Horizons was at its closest approach.
An orbiter would allow an extended investigation.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI.
New Horizons gave us our first look at Pluto’s active surface. Like a cosmic lava lamp,
a large section of Pluto’s icy surface in Sputnik Planum is being constantly renewed
by a process called convection that replaces older surface ices with fresher material.
An orbiter would help us understand this and many other features of Pluto.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
New Horizons is a pretty small spacecraft, and so it its dish. A Pluto Orbiter
would need a much larger, more powerful data transmission system.
Image Credit: – By NASA Media archive
Public Domain, From Wikipedia
Close up of the back side of Pluto taken by New Horizons shows multiple layers
of haze in its mostly nitrogen atmosphere.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
NASA's Pluto 1 year later
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