Tag: NASA New Horizons
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Map reveals that there’s more water ice on Pluto
This false-color infrared image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows water ice concentrations on Pluto. The left image is the result of an initial analysis, and the right image has been reprocessed to account for mixtures with other types of ice. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) A color-coded map from NASA’s New Horizons mission…
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New Horizons team shares new X-Files from Pluto
This image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows patterns in the nitrogen glaciers of an area informally named Sputnik Planum – including an X shape just to the right and below the image’s center. The darker patch at the center of the image is probably a dirty block of water ice “floating” in the denser…
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Postal Service geeks out with space stamps for Pluto, planets, the moon and Star Trek
The U.S. Postal Service’s souvenir sheet of four stamps contains two new stamps appearing twice. The first stamp shows an artist’s rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft and the second shows the spacecraft’s enhanced color image of Pluto taken near closest approach. (Credit: Antonio Alcala / USPS) For the first time since 1991, Pluto and…
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New Horizons probe sends more amazing pics of Pluto and a tiny moon called Nix
The New Horizons probe got a look at craters containing dark material during its July 14 Pluto flyby. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) The hits just keep on coming from NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto: This week’s stunners include views of the surface that look weirder than the terrain in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,”…
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NASA’s New Horizons mission colorizes Pluto’s close-up – and zooms in on its pits
This enhanced color mosaic combines image data from two cameras on NASA’s New Horizons probe. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) The Pluto pictures from NASA’s New Horizons probe just keep getting better and better: Feast your eyes on this colorized view of the border between the towering al-Idrisi mountains made of water ice, and…
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Ice volcanoes on Pluto? NASA’s New Horizons probe spots ‘weird’ mountains
A color-coded topographical map, based on New Horizons data, shows Piccard Mons on the surface of Pluto. The mountain’s structure suggests that it’s an ice volcano. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission say that at least a couple of the miles-high mountains on Pluto look as if they’re ice-belching…
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Kerberos unleashed at last: Pluto’s dog-bone moon poses another mystery
This image of Kerberos was created by combining four individual images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager that were captured on July 14, approximately seven hours before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto, at a range of 245,600 miles (396,100 kilometers) from Kerberos. The image has bee processed to recover the highest possible resolution.…
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Science journal gives New Horizons mission to Pluto its day in the sun
NASA’s New Horizons probe captured this backlit image of Pluto as it flew past the dwarf planet on July 14. Scattered sunlight reveals numerous haze layers within Pluto’s thin atmosphere, while the surprisingly diverse surface landscape indicates ongoing geological activity. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) The first peer-reviewed scientific paper about the New Horizons probe’s…
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NASA mission’s leader calls B.S. on Pluto haters: Will it make a difference?
New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern’s jaw drops as he ogles the first pictures to be sent back from the probe’s Pluto flyby, shown on a fellow team member’s laptop. (Credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA) Can you say “bullshit” at NASA? The principal investigator for NASA’s New Horizons mission did, in an outburst directed at the tortuous…
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Stephen Colbert checks in with Neil deGrasse Tyson in this super-scientific Pluto Flyby update
Let’s check back in on Pluto, shall we? In the midst of celebrating the news that Pluto successfully completed its flyby yesterday,The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert sat down with Neil deGrasse Tyson in what appears to be an intern’s cubicle to discuss the monumental event. Colbert, excited that New Horizons, or the spacecraft “named after the…