Tag: Pluto

  • New Horizons calls home

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern celebrates the reception of the first signals from New Horizons after a historic encounter with faraway Pluto. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls A long-awaited radio signal from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft landed on planet Earth late Tuesday, confirming the faraway space probe performed as expected during a one-shot flyby of Pluto…

  • See NASA’s Pluto explorer before embarkment from Earth

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    Photo credit: Ben Cooper/Launchphotography.com NASA’s New Horizons probe, armored for a nine-year journey through the cold, inhospitable depths of space, launched Jan. 19, 2006, from Cape Canaveral. Fitted with seven instruments to map Pluto’s topography, atmosphere and composition, New Horizons is approaching the frozen world for a flyby Tuesday nearly three billion miles from Earth.…

  • Cliffs, chasms and craters revealed in latest New Horizons images

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    An annotated version of an image of Pluto captured July 11 by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instrument. Pluto’s northern hemisphere appears in the image, with its equator near the bottom of the disk. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI The first hints of dramatic cliffs, chasms and craters are showing up in new imagery of Pluto…

  • Pluto probe project manager gives advice to team

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    New Horizons project manager Glen Fountain, a veteran of nearly 50 years at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, told the Pluto probe’s team to live in the moment for Tuesday’s historic flyby, but look out for last-minute snags. Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

  • Clear sailing expected for Pluto flyby

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    There is no sign of an undiscovered moon lurking around Pluto in data streaming back to Earth from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, and that is surprising to Alan Stern, the scientist in charge of the probe. Stern told reporters Sunday his biggest surprise from New Horizons’ first glances at Pluto is the lack of more moons…

  • Pluto stakes claim as ‘King of the Kuiper Belt’

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    Pluto’s bright, mysterious “heart” is rotating into view, ready for its close-up on close approach, in this image taken by New Horizons on July 12 from a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers). Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Using high-fidelity modeling and image analysis to resolve Pluto’s exact shape, scientists examining pictures from NASA’s New Horizons…

  • NASA probe finally on Pluto’s doorstep

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Three billion miles and nine-and-a-half years from Earth, NASA’s New Horizons probe is racing toward a historic July 14 flyby of Pluto, providing the first close-up views of the most famous denizen of the Kuiper Belt, a vast hinterland…

  • Question time with Alan Stern, the Pluto evangelist

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal investigator, started thinking about a mission to Pluto in the 1980s. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani July is a month of rich rewards for Alan Stern, the scientist who shepherded the New Horizons spacecraft from the drawing board to Pluto, and the payoff will be sweet. New Horizons comes closest to Pluto…

  • New Horizons gets last look at Pluto’s mystery spots

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager captured this view of Pluto early Saturday, July 11, at a distance of 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers). It shows mysterious dark spots along Pluto’s equatorial belt and linear features suggestive of polygonal shapes. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI The New Horizons spacecraft has captured its last view of mysterious dark…

  • Pluto probe provides appetizer for next week’s flyby

    —

    by

    starpathwp-production
    in

    New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Pluto and Charon when it snapped this portrait late on July 8, 2015. Color data from New Horizons’ Ralph instrument was added to colorize the image. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Living up to promises that the view from New Horizons will only get better, the Pluto-bound…