Tag Archive for 'Pluto'

This impressive view of Charon was captured on July 14, 2015. Charon’s color palette is not as diverse as Pluto’s; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Researchers Discover Why Charon’s North Polar Cap is Red

Sep 15, 2016 by News Staff

Scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission have learned that reddish material in the north polar region of Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon, is chemically...

The first detection of Pluto in X-rays has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The main panel in this graphic is an optical image taken from New Horizons on its approach to Pluto, while the inset shows an image of Pluto in X-rays from Chandra. There is a significant difference in scale between the optical and X-ray images. New Horizons made a close flyby of Pluto but Chandra is located near the Earth, so the level of detail visible in the two images is very different. The Chandra image is 180,000 miles across at the distance of Pluto, but the planet is only 1,500 miles across. Pluto is detected in the X-ray image as a point source, showing the sharpest level of detail available for Chandra or any other X-ray observatory. This means that details over scales that are smaller than the X-ray source cannot be seen here. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / JHUAPL / R.McNutt et al; optical – NASA / JHUAPL.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Detects X-Rays from Pluto

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first detections of X-rays from Pluto. This X-ray emission comes from interaction between...

Snowcapped mountains in the southernmost part of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Finds Methane Snow-Capped Mountains near Pluto’s South Polar Region

Sep 6, 2016 by News Staff

A new close-up image from NASA’s New Horizons robotic spacecraft reveals snowcapped mountains in the southernmost part of Pluto. Snowcapped mountains...

One year ago, NASA’s New Horizons space probe entered the history books by exploring the Pluto system. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons’ Top Ten Images, Discoveries at Pluto

Jul 18, 2016 by News Staff

One year ago, NASA’s New Horizons space probe entered the history books by exploring the Pluto system. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University...

Artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Alex Parker.

NASA Officially Extends New Horizons Mission

Jul 4, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s New Horizons robotic probe has received the green light to fly onward to the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) 2014 MU69. Artist’s impression of New...

This New Horizons image shows Pluto’s small moon Nix. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Small Moon Nix is Covered in Relatively Pure Water Ice

Jun 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The latest data from NASA’s New Horizons probe reveal a water-ice signature on the surface of Nix, one of Pluto’s five known moons. This New Horizons...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aad1815.

Pluto Likely Has a Hidden Liquid Ocean

Jun 21, 2016 by News Staff

When NASA’s New Horizons robotic spacecraft flew by Pluto in July 2015, it revealed clues that the enigmatic dwarf planet might have – or had at...

Pluto’s far side. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Image Shows Pluto’s Far Side

Jun 6, 2016 by News Staff

The Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera onboard NASA’s New Horizons robotic probe captured this image of Pluto only 19 minutes after closest approach...

Sputnik Planum basin: this scene, which is about 250 miles (400 km) across, uses data from New Horizons’ Ralph/MVIC instrument. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Irregular Polygons in Pluto’s Heart-Shaped Region Finally Explained

Jun 1, 2016 by News Staff

According to members of NASA’s New Horizons science team, the icy surface of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum basin is being constantly renewed by a process...

This image of 1994 JR1 was taken by New Horizons’ LORRI camera in April 2016. The feature in the top left is an internal camera reflection caused by illumination by a very bright star just outside of LORRI’s field of view. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Spacecraft Beams Back Science Data on Kuiper Belt Object 1994 JR1

May 20, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released new images and data on the Kuiper belt object (KBO) 1994 JR1 from the New Horizons spacecraft. This image of 1994 JR1 was taken by New...

This image, taken by New Horizons’ LORRI camera on July 14, 2015, shows Pluto’s small, irregularly shaped moon Hydra. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Beams Back Compositional Data about Pluto’s Small Moon Hydra

May 10, 2016 by News Staff

The first compositional data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft about Pluto’s small, irregularly shaped moon Hydra show the moon’s surface is dominated...

Space environment data collected by New Horizons over a billion miles of its journey to Pluto will play a key role in testing and improving models of the space environment throughout the Solar System. This visualization is one example of such a model: it shows the simulated space environment out to Pluto a few months before New Horizons’ closest approach. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio / Space Weather Research Center / Community-Coordinated Modeling Center / Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil, GMU.

New Horizons Observes Solar Wind Changes in Outer Solar System

Apr 6, 2016 by News Staff

The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has recorded significant changes in how the solar wind behaves far from...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Science Papers Provide New Data from Pluto System Flyby

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers on the New Horizons team have released a set of five scientific papers describing results from the July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system. This...

‘Bite mark’ on Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Team Finds ‘Bite Mark’ on Pluto

Mar 14, 2016 by News Staff

Members of the New Horizons mission team have discovered a huge ‘bite mark’ on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. ‘Bite mark’ on Pluto. The...

Methane snow-capped mountains in Cthulhu Regio, Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Spots Methane Snow-Capped Mountains on Pluto

Mar 7, 2016 by News Staff

This newly released image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows a chain of snowcapped mountains in Pluto’s Cthulhu Regio. Methane snow-capped mountains...

Vast canyons on Pluto’s north pole: the widest of the canyons is marked in yellow; smaller canyons are green; the valleys are blue and pink; irregularly-shaped pits are red. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sees Canyons on North Pole of Pluto

Feb 26, 2016 by News Staff

This enhanced color image of Pluto’s north polar area was taken by New Horizons’ Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera on July 14, 2015, from...

A close-up of the canyons on Charon, taken by New Horizons’ LORRI instrument during the spacecraft’s close approach to the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. When New Horizons took this image, a distance of 48,900 miles (78,700 km) separated the spacecraft and Charon. The image measures 240 miles (386 km) long and 110 miles (175 km) wide. Multiple views taken by the spacecraft as it passed by the Pluto’s largest moon allow stereo measurements of topography, shown in the color-coded version of the image. The scale bar indicates relative elevation. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Charon May Have Had Subsurface Water Ocean

Feb 19, 2016 by News Staff

Images taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instrument on board NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft suggest that Charon once had an underground...

Geologic map of Pluto’s famous heart-shaped region, Sputnik Planum. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Scientists Create Geologic Map of Pluto’s Big Heart

Feb 16, 2016 by News Staff

NASA scientists have produced this geologic map of one of Pluto’s most dominant features from images taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance...

LEISA data point to more prevalent water ice on the surface of Pluto than previously thought. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Relatively Large Amounts of Water Ice Found on Pluto’s Surface

Feb 2, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons science team used data from the Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) — a short-wavelength, IR, spectral imager...

This New Horizons image shows the night side of Charon. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

First-Ever Look at Charon’s Night Side

Jan 26, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s New Horizons robotic probe captured this image of the night side of Charon on July 17, 2015, nearly three days after closest approach to the Pluto...

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