{"id":19483,"date":"2016-01-28T19:05:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T11:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/map-reveals-that-theres-more-water-ice-on-pluto\/"},"modified":"2016-01-28T19:05:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T11:05:21","slug":"map-reveals-that-theres-more-water-ice-on-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/map-reveals-that-theres-more-water-ice-on-pluto\/","title":{"rendered":"Map reveals that there\u2019s more water ice on Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Water
This false-color infrared image from NASA\u2019s 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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A color-coded map from NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission shows where Pluto\u2019s frozen water is concentrated, just in case we need to fill up our tanks on the way to Alpha Centauri or Planet Nine.<\/p>\n

Water ice turns out to be more widespread on the dwarf planet than previously thought, the mission\u2019s researchers reported today. They came to that conclusion after some sophisticated analysis of infrared imagery captured during the New Horizons spacecraft\u2019s flyby last July 14.<\/p>\n

Soon after the flyby, the mission team concluded that Pluto possessed mountains of water ice rising as high as 11,000 feet above the icy world\u2019s surface. That conclusion was confirmed in follow-up studies based on the infrared data from the piano-sized probe\u2019s Ralph\/LEISA instrument.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

LEISA\u2019s survey mapped concentrations of water ice, but scientists figured out that the spectral readings could be thrown off if the frozen water was mixed in with frozen methane. When they modeled the contributions from other types of ice on Pluto\u2019s surface, the resulting map showed wider stretches where water ice should be present.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still no sign of water on the western side of Pluto\u2019s heart-shaped region, known informally as Sputnik Planum, or in the north polar region known as Lowell Regio. \u201cThis indicates that at least in these regions, Pluto\u2019s icy bedrock is well hidden beneath a thick blanket of other ices such as methane, nitrogen and carbon monoxide,\u201d the New Horizons team wrote in today\u2019s image advisory.<\/p>\n

As would-be asteroid miners know, water ice could become a precious resource for future interplanetary travelers, because it can be turned into rocket fuel as well as oxygen for breathing and liquid water for drinking. But even if no one ever lands on Pluto, the water distribution map provides valuable information about the dwarf planet\u2019s geology.<\/p>\n

\"Backlit
This infrared image from New Horizons shows how haze in Pluto\u2019s thin atmosphere scatters sunlight. The imagery was captured after the spacecraft\u2019s close encounter, at a distance of about 112,000 miles from Pluto. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another newly released picture from LEISA provides the first look at Pluto\u2019s thin atmosphere in infrared wavelengths. The backlit view was captured just after the spacecraft\u2019s close encounter, and looks similar to a visible-wavelength view that was released last October.<\/p>\n

The blue ring is sunlight that\u2019s apparently been scattered by hydrocarbon-based haze. There are a few white regions in the ring, where the sunlight is bouncing off more reflective or smoother areas on Pluto\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

The New Horizons spacecraft is expected to continue sending data saved up from its encounter for at least several months, so you can look forward to many more snapshots from the edge of the solar system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This false-color infrared image from NASA\u2019s 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\u2019s New Horizons mission […]<\/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":[2840,190,4809,2174,2848],"class_list":["post-19483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-dwarf-planets","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483"}],"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=19483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}