Tag Archive for 'Dwarf planet'

NASA Unveils New, Close-Up Image of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Sep 9, 2015 by News Staff

A stunning new image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows a cluster of bright spots on Ceres’ surface in unprecedented detail. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft...

This image of the dwarf planet Pluto is as New Horizons saw it in July 2015. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Releases Animation of New Horizons’ Flight through Pluto System

Sep 3, 2015 by News Staff

This flyby animation was compiled by Dr Stuart Robbins, a member of the New Horizons team and a research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute...

This image is a close-up from the image above and shows the Occator crater with a cluster of mysterious bright spots. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Beams Back New Image of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Aug 31, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft captured this image of Ceres and its mysterious bright spots on June 25, 2015, from a distance of 2,700 miles (4,400 km). This...

Dawn spotted this conical mountain on Ceres from a distance of 915 miles (1,470 km). The image was taken on August 19, 2015. The mountain, located in the southern hemisphere, stands 4 miles (6 km) high. Its perimeter is sharply defined, with almost no accumulated debris at the base of the brightly streaked slope. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Returns New Images of Dwarf Planet Ceres

Aug 25, 2015 by News Staff

New close-up pics of Ceres show the dwarf planet’s features in detail, including tall, conical mountain; narrow, braided fractures and a large crater...

This mosaic provides the best view ever obtained of the dwarf planet Pluto. The lower right edge of the planet in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Atmospheric Nitrogen Likely Has Internal Origin, Scientists Say

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at Southwest Research Institute are studying the data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to discover what is pumping up the nitrogen...

The mysterious bright spots on Ceres lie in the Occator crater, which is about 60 miles (90 km) across and two miles (4 km) deep. This image comes from the animation, generated using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft; vertical relief has been exaggerated by a factor of five; exaggerating the relief helps scientists understand and visualize the topography much more easily, and highlights features that are sometimes subtle. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / LPI.

NASA Dawn’s Flight over Dwarf Planet Ceres

Aug 7, 2015 by News Staff

Explore the craters, bright spots, mountains and other features of Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The data for this...

NASA Scientists Produce New Topographic Maps of Ceres

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at NASA have just released colorful new topographic maps of the dwarf planet Ceres, based on data gathered by the agency’s Dawn spacecraft. This...

Global map of Pluto as of July 28, 2015. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Releases Updated Global Map of Pluto

Jul 28, 2015 by News Staff

This map-projected view of the dwarf planet Pluto was created from images taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) between July...

The hazes in Pluto’s atmosphere provide a crucial link between the sunlight-driven chemistry in the upper atmosphere and the reddish-brown hydrocarbons called tholins that rain down and darken the surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sheds More Light on Pluto’s Atmosphere

Jul 27, 2015 by News Staff

Just seven hours after closest approach, the spacecraft looked back and captured an incredible image of the dwarf planet’s atmosphere, backlit by the...

NASA Releases New Portrait of Dwarf Planet Pluto

Jul 27, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission have released the sharpest view yet of Pluto. This mosaic provides the best view ever obtained of the dwarf...

This image of the southern region of Sputnik Planum reveals icy plains, 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 is about 30 miles (50 km) wide. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Discovers Exotic Ices on Pluto

Jul 24, 2015 by News Staff

The New Horizons spacecraft has found evidence of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices flowing across the dwarf planet’s surface. In the northern...

New Image from New Horizons Shows Pluto, Charon in Near-True Color

Jul 24, 2015 by News Staff

This image of the dwarf planet and its largest moon was captured by New Horizons’ Ralph color imager on July 14, 2015, five hours before Pluto closest...

This image was captured on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles and received on Earth on July 20. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Spots Second Mountain Range on Pluto

Jul 22, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has discovered a new mountain range in a heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio. This image was captured on July 14,...

Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 km) from the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto on July 14. The color image has been combined with lower-resolution color information from the Ralph instrument that was acquired earlier on July 13. This view is dominated by the large, bright feature informally named the ‘heart,’ which measures around 1,000 miles (1,600 km) across. The heart’s diameter is about the same distance as from Denver to Chicago, in America’s heartland. The heart borders darker equatorial terrains, and the mottled terrain to its east (right) are complex. However, even at this resolution, much of the heart’s interior appears remarkably featureless-possibly a sign of ongoing geologic processes. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Uncovers Hidden Secrets of Pluto’s Atmosphere

Jul 20, 2015 by News Staff

The Alice instrument – a lightweight (4.4 kg), low-power (4.4 Watt) imaging spectrograph aboard NASA’s New Horizons – has observed Pluto’s...

This view of a portion of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum shows 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 on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 km). Features as small as a half-mile (1 km) across are visible. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Close-Up of Pluto Reveals Very Young, Craterless Plain

Jul 17, 2015 by News Staff

According to New Horizons planetary scientists, this frozen region is no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic...

This close-up image was taken about 1.5 hours before New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, when the craft was 47,800 miles (77,000 km) from the dwarf planet’s surface. The image easily resolves structures smaller than a mile across. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New, Close-Up Image of Pluto Reveals Youthful Mountains

Jul 16, 2015 by News Staff

The new image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows a range of youthful mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet (3.5 km) above the dwarf planet’s...

This July 13, 2015, image of Pluto is presented in false colors to make differences in surface material and features easy to see. It was obtained by New Horizons’ Ralph instrument, using three filters to obtain color information, which is exaggerated in the image. The image reveals that the bright heart-shaped region of Pluto includes areas that differ in color characteristics. The western lobe, shaped like an ice-cream cone, appears peach color in this image. A mottled area on the right (east) appears bluish. Even within Pluto’s northern polar cap, in the upper part of the image, various shades of yellow-orange indicate subtle compositional differences. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sends Signal Home

Jul 15, 2015 by News Staff

New Horizons called home around 9 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. PDT, 1 a.m. GMT Wednesday) Tuesday to tell the world it had successfully completed the historic flyby...

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Arrives at Pluto

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

After a journey of nine and a half years through the Solar System, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto today, about 7,750 miles (12,470 km)...

This image of Pluto from New Horizons was received on July 8, 2015, and has been combined with color information from the spacecraft’s Ralph instrument. The image was taken on July 7, when New Horizons was 5 million miles (8 million km) from the dwarf planet. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Watch Live on NASA TV: New Horizons Pluto Flyby

Jul 14, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons will complete a close flyby of Pluto today at 7:49 a.m. EST (4:49 a.m. PST, 11:49 a.m. GMT, 1:49 p.m. CET, 5:19 p.m. IST, 9:49 p.m....

This image of Pluto reveals intriguing geologic details that are of keen interest to New Horizons team members. 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 km) from Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Ready for Historic Pluto Flyby

Jul 13, 2015 by News Staff

After a journey of nine and a half years and three billion miles, NASA’s New Horizons is ready for a close look at the dwarf planet Pluto and its five...

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