Tag: New Horizons
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Water ice abounds in Pluto’s frigid bedrock
This false-color image, derived from observations in infrared light by the Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) instrument, shows where the spectral features of water ice are abundant on Pluto’s surface. It is based on two LEISA scans of Pluto obtained on July 14, 2015, from a range of about 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers). The…
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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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Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard New Horizons, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s…
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Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard New Horizons, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s…
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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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Year In Review, Part 1: To the edge of the solar system and beyond
Space exploration in 2015 was an unprecedented series of firsts and major achievements. But for NASA and the world’s space communities, nothing quite captured the spirit and excitement of exploration more than the heralded exploration of Pluto and the detection of the first Earth-like exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star. Year In Review Part 1 – Pluto…
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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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Rugged swath of Pluto now resolved in color
A cosmic shoreline is pictured here, where the vast icy plain informally named Sputnik Planum borders rugged mountains made of water ice blocks standing up to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) tall. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute A high-resolution scan of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft published last week is now…
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NASA’s New Horizons probe sends its closest close-up of Pluto
A heart-shaped patch of nitrogen-rich ice (outlined in red) lies next to a mountain range on Pluto, as seen in a picture from NASA’s New Horizons probe. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI with heartification by Vicknesh Selvamani / @Vicknesh96) If you heart Pluto, you’ll love the sharpest, closest close-up of the dwarf planet, just sent…