{"id":19590,"date":"2015-10-16T00:52:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T16:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/science-journal-gives-new-horizons-mission-to-pluto-its-day-in-the-sun\/"},"modified":"2015-10-16T00:52:46","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T16:52:46","slug":"science-journal-gives-new-horizons-mission-to-pluto-its-day-in-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/science-journal-gives-new-horizons-mission-to-pluto-its-day-in-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Science journal gives New Horizons mission to Pluto its day in the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_205675\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-205675\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-205675 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-pluto-620x399.jpg\" alt=\"Pluto's edge\" width=\"620\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-pluto-620x399.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-pluto-1240x797.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-205675\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s 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\u2019s thin atmosphere, while the surprisingly diverse surface landscape indicates ongoing geological activity. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first peer-reviewed scientific paper&nbsp;about the New Horizons probe\u2019s July flyby past Pluto lays out puzzling evidence that suggests the dwarf planet isn\u2019t frozen in time. Rather, its smooth plains, high mountains and nitrogen glaciers&nbsp;are leading the NASA mission\u2019s researchers to suspect that it\u2019s geologically active even now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPluto\u2019s still got an engine, and it\u2019s still running,\u201d principal investigator Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute told journalists&nbsp;in advance of the paper\u2019s publication today by&nbsp;the journal Science.<\/p>\n<p>The study provides an overview on the amazing discoveries made by the New Horizons team in the wake of the spacecraft\u2019s July 14 encounter with Pluto and its moons, 3 billion miles from Earth.&nbsp;Stern told GeekWire that the geological diversity seen on the dwarf planet is \u201cjust unparalleled in the solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have said things like this before, but getting it through peer review is a different matter,\u201d Stern said.<\/p>\n<p>Among the top findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Although some areas of Pluto are heavily cratered, a stretch of bright terrain that\u2019s been nicknamed Sputnik Planum has no large craters at all. That implies the region is being&nbsp;reshaped by tectonic changes that&nbsp;could still be under way. The New Horizons team hasn\u2019t determined what\u2019s driving those changes, but it could be&nbsp;heat generated by the&nbsp;decay of radioactive minerals in Pluto\u2019s core.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s snowcapped mountains rise as high as 11,000 feet (3 kilometers) above the surrounding terrain&nbsp;\u2013 so high that researchers say they have to consist mostly of water ice, with a topping of frozen nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. The observations suggest that frozen H2O forms a&nbsp;layer of solid \u201cbedrock\u201d that\u2019s only occasionally exposed at the surface.<\/li>\n<li>Some areas of the surface are markedly yellower or redder than others. That\u2019s thought to be due to the presence of tholins, organic residues that are created when mixtures of nitrogen and methane are irradiated by the sun\u2019s ultraviolet light.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto is covered by a thin, multilayered haze of nitrogen and other gases that extends about 90 miles (150 kilometers) out from the surface. The atmospheric pressure is lower than researchers expected, but it\u2019s too early to say whether that means Pluto\u2019s air is rapidly freezing out. Some pictures show features that look like wind streaks or dunes.<\/li>\n<li>Pluto\u2019s biggest moon, Charon, looks dramatically different: Its most dramatic features include a canyon system that\u2019s more than twice&nbsp;as deep, wide&nbsp;and long as&nbsp;the Grand Canyon on Earth \u2026 and a dark spot at the north pole that\u2019s been nicknamed Mordor Macula. The spot may be trapping volatile materials and turning them into tholins, which would explain Mordor Macula\u2019s&nbsp;reddish color.<\/li>\n<li>Like Charon, the smaller Plutonian moons Nix and Hydra are made mostly of water ice. But the ice on Nix and Hydra looks cleaner and brighter than Charon\u2019s. Detailed pictures of two other moons, Styx and Kerberos, haven\u2019t yet come down from the spacecraft \u2013 and New Horizons\u2019 searches have turned up no evidence of additional moons or rings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_205807\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-205807\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-205807 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-charon-620x620.jpg\" alt=\"Mordor Macula on Charon\" width=\"620\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-charon-620x620.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-charon-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-charon-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/151015-charon.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-205807\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto\u2019s big moon Charon just before closest approach on July 14. The colors are processed to best highlight the variation of surface properties across Charon. Charon\u2019s color palette is not as diverse as Pluto\u2019s; most striking is the reddish north polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stern emphasized that this was just a first look at the Plutonian system. The New Horizons spacecraft stored up tens of gigabits\u2019 worth of data during the July flyby, but can&nbsp;send it back to Earth at a rate of only&nbsp;2,000 bits per second. Only 15 percent of the data has been received so far, Stern said. It will take until late 2016 to get it all down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe very best data is still on the spacecraft,\u201d Stern said.<\/p>\n<p>The findings so far have been \u201cunexpectedly exciting,\u201d Mark Sykes, director of the Arizona-based Planetary Science Institute, told GeekWire. Sykes reviewed the research paper in advance but is not part of the New Horizons team. He said the Plutonian system turned out to be&nbsp;more diverse and dynamic than he would have thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt raises the question, well, what about Eris and the other dwarf planets as well?\u201d Sykes said.<\/p>\n<p>Sykes said the paper sheds new light&nbsp;on yet another question: Is Pluto a planet? In 2006, the International Astronomical Union created the category \u201cdwarf planet\u201d and ruled that dwarf planets like Pluto were not planets per se. But in the Science paper, New Horizons\u2019 scientists refer to Pluto and its kin as \u201csmall planets\u201d&nbsp;\u2013 which runs counter to the IAU\u2019s preferred usage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have done a far more imaginative, engaging, and even respectful job than I would expect the IAU to do,\u201d Sykes, who has previously criticized the 2006 ruling, said in an email. \u201cThe IAU should defer to the discovery team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Science paper is titled \u2018The Pluto System: Initial Results From Its Exploration by New Horizons\u201d and has 151 co-authors, including Stern. This report incorporates comments that Stern made at last week\u2019s ScienceWriters2015 meeting in Cambridge, Mass. Alan Boyle is the president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, one of the organizers of the New Horizons in Science briefings at ScienceWriters2015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s 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\u2019s thin atmosphere, while the surprisingly diverse surface landscape indicates ongoing geological activity. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI) The first peer-reviewed scientific paper&nbsp;about the New Horizons probe\u2019s [&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":[2172,2840,4663,190,4809,2174,2848,4004],"class_list":["post-19590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-charon","tag-dwarf-planets","tag-iau","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto","tag-pluto-flyby"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19590"}],"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=19590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}