{"id":19316,"date":"2016-07-14T19:59:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T11:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/one-year-after-pluto-flyby-new-horizons-mission-looks-back-and-looks-ahead\/"},"modified":"2016-07-14T19:59:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T11:59:42","slug":"one-year-after-pluto-flyby-new-horizons-mission-looks-back-and-looks-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/one-year-after-pluto-flyby-new-horizons-mission-looks-back-and-looks-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"One year after Pluto flyby, New Horizons mission looks back and looks ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_260594\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-260594\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-260594\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-630x630.jpg\" alt=\"Pluto and Charon\" width=\"630\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-630x630.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-1240x1240.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-260594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A composite image shows enhanced-color views of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left). Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One year ago today, NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe whizzed past Pluto and opened up a new frontier for planetary science&nbsp;\u2013 and to mark the occasion, the mission team is looking&nbsp;back at its greatest hits and looking ahead to a landing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s strange to think that only a year ago, we still had no real idea of what the Pluto system was like,\u201d project scientist Hal Weaver, who\u2019s based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a news release celebrating the anniversary. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t take long for us to realize Pluto was something special, and like nothing we ever could have expected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After more than nine years of cruising through interplanetary space, the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto and its moons at a speed of more than 30,000 mph on July 14, 2015, capturing readings as it went. Since then, the probe has been transmitting&nbsp;gigabytes\u2019 worth of data back to Earth at a slow but steady rate.<\/p>\n<p>The pictures have been unprecedented, providing the first close look at icy worlds that whirl more than 3 billion miles from the sun, in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. They\u2019ve even&nbsp;inspired a set of postage stamps.&nbsp;Check out NASA\u2019s gallery of the mission\u2019s top 10 pictures:<\/p>\n<style>.fotorama1782804384062 .fotorama__nav--thumbs .fotorama__nav__frame{\npadding:2px;\nheight:64px}\n.fotorama1782804384062 .fotorama__thumb-border{\nheight:60px;\nborder-width:2px;\nmargin-top:2px}<\/style>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto1.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 523.481px; height: 400px; left: 136.759px; top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tNew Horizons discovers flowing ices in the northern region of Sputnik Planum. (Credit for all pictures: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto9x-1240x1240.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 400px; height: 400px; left: 198.5px; top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tThese color-coded compositional maps of Pluto indicate the regions that are rich in ices of methane (CH4), nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CH) and water ice (H2O).<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto2-1240x1106.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 448.463px; height: 400px; left: 174.269px; top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\tThis New Horizons image shows the dark, rugged highlands known as Krun Macula (lower right), which border a section of Pluto\u2019s icy plains.<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto1.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 84px; height: 64.1857px; left: 0px; top: -0.0928482px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto2-1240x1106.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 72px; height: 64.2194px; left: 0px; top: -0.109677px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto3.png\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 71px; height: 64.1193px; left: 0px; top: -0.0596379px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto4-1240x1143.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 69.4313px; height: 64px; left: -0.215661px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto5-1240x944.png\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 84.0678px; height: 64px; left: -0.0338983px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto6-1240x1240.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 64px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto7.png\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 104.037px; height: 64px; left: -0.0187207px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Pluto.png\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 64px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/160303-methane-1240x646.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 123px; height: 64.079px; left: 0px; top: -0.0395161px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160714-pluto9x-1240x1240.jpg\" class=\"fotorama__img\" style=\"width: 64px; height: 64px; left: 0px; top: 0px;\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,&nbsp;principal investigator Alan Stern, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, highlighted the top 10 surprises so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pluto and its satellites are far more complex than expected.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s surface shows ample signs of recent geological activity.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto has a hazier and more stable atmosphere than predicted.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s biggest moon, Charon, looks as if it has a frozen interior ocean, and Pluto itself could well have an internal water-ice ocean today.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s moons appear to have roughly the same age, boosting the theory that they were all formed in the wake of a single collision between a proto-Pluto and another icy object billions of years ago.<\/li>\n<li>Charon\u2019s dark red polar cap may be the result of atmospheric gases that escaped Pluto and built up as a layer on the moon\u2019s surface.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s 600-mile-wide, heart-shaped field of frozen nitrogen&nbsp;\u2013 informally known as&nbsp;Sputnik Planum&nbsp;\u2013 is arguably the solar system\u2019s largest known&nbsp;glacier.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto shows evidence of vast changes in atmospheric pressure, and possibly the past presence of running or standing liquid volatiles on its surface.<\/li>\n<li>One surprise of a different sort was the failure to detect any more satellites beyond the five that were found before the flyby.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s atmosphere is blue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>New Horizons is far from finished: The probe is expected to continue sending data from the flyby through October. Then the mission team will turn its full attention to preparations for another flyby. The 2019 encounter&nbsp;will focus on a smaller Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69, about a billion miles beyond Pluto.<\/p>\n<p>To cap off today\u2019s anniversary of the Pluto flyby, New Horizons\u2019 scientists stitched together images to create a video hinting at what a lander might see as it zeroes in on the&nbsp;dwarf planet.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New Horizons: Imagining a Landing on Pluto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GKmixf1pC2w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge in creating this movie is to make it feel like you\u2019re diving into Pluto,\u201d Constantine Tsang, a New Horizons scientist at the Southwest Research Institute who worked with Stern to create the clip, said in a news release. \u201cWe had to interpolate some of the frames based on what we know Pluto looks like to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. It\u2019s certainly fun to see this and think what it would feel like to approach a landing on Pluto!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Could it ever happen? There\u2019s no Pluto lander in the works.&nbsp;NASA says it has higher interplanetary priorities, such as looking for signs of life on Mars and the ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn. But Stern has said he\u2019s thought about&nbsp;designing&nbsp;a \u201chyper orbiter\u201d that&nbsp;could land on Charon and keep watch on&nbsp;Pluto&nbsp;from nearby. So although it\u2019s a long shot, there may be yet another new horizon ahead for Pluto explorers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A composite image shows enhanced-color views of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left). Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI One year ago today, NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe whizzed past Pluto and opened up a new frontier for planetary science&nbsp;\u2013 and to mark the occasion, the mission team is looking&nbsp;back at its greatest hits and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2172,2173,4809,4810,2848,4004],"class_list":["post-19316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-charon","tag-kuiper-belt","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons-probe","tag-pluto","tag-pluto-flyby"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}