Pluto – Page 8 – Astronomy Now

Latest New Horizons images of Pluto and Charon delight and amaze

10 September 2015 Astronomy Now

New close-up images of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveal a bewildering variety of surface features that have scientists reeling because of their range and complexity. Images downlinked in the past few days reveal new features as diverse as possible dunes, nitrogen ice flows oozing out of mountainous regions onto plains, and even networks of valleys possibly carved by material flowing over Pluto’s surface.

Scientists eager for restart of Pluto photo pipeline

27 August 2015 Stephen Clark

The first images from the New Horizons spacecraft since late July will come back to Earth on 5 September, and scientists are salivating over what the new pictures will reveal about Pluto.

Pluto’s Moon Charon mapped

31 July 2015 Astronomy Now

The science team of NASA’s New Horizons mission has produced this global map of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, from the data received so far from the 14 July flyby.

The heart of Pluto in high-resolution

29 July 2015 Stephen Clark

The icy plains of Pluto resolved by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft stretch as wide as Texas, enveloping mountain ranges and bizarre hilly outcrops in a mosaic revealing one lobe of the distant world’s heart-shaped reservoir of exotic frozen carbon monoxide, nitrogen and methane.

New global map of Pluto

29 July 2015 Astronomy Now

The science team of NASA’s New Horizons mission has produced an updated global map of dwarf planet Pluto that includes all resolved images of the surface acquired 7-14 July 2015, up to 400 metres/pixel resolution. Many additional images are expected in autumn 2015 and these will be used to complete the global map.

Extended haze in Pluto’s atmosphere

25 July 2015 Astronomy Now

Backlit by the Sun, Pluto’s atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on July 15. This global portrait of the atmosphere was captured when the spacecraft was about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometres) from the dwarf planet.

New Horizons discovers flowing ices on Pluto

25 July 2015 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons mission has found evidence of exotic ices flowing across Pluto’s surface, at the left edge of its bright heart-shaped area. New close-up images from the spacecraft’s Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) reveal signs of recent geologic activity, something scientists hoped to find but didn’t expect.

Pluto Dazzles in False Colour

24 July 2015 Astronomy Now

Four images from the New Horizon’s probe’s LORRI camera have been combined with colour from the Ralph instrument to create this spectacular false colour image of Pluto.

Pluto probe’s camera sees striking geologic boundary

21 July 2015 Stephen Clark

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. This image was acquired by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles.

Pluto’s moons Nix and Hydra resolved

21 July 2015 Stephen Clark

Two of Pluto’s mini-moons, the mysterious Nix and Hydra, have transitioned from featureless points of light into their own worlds with new imagery from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.