Pluto and Charon, the largest of its five moons, as seen by New Horizons. Image via NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Now things are about to get exciting! On February 4, 2015 – 99th anniversary of the birth of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930 – NASA released new images of Pluto and its largest moon Charon. The images were captured by LORRI – New Horizons’ telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager – on January 25 and 27, 2015. New Horizons was about 126 million miles (203 million kilometers) from Pluto when the frames to make the first image were taken, and about 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) closer for the second set. Closer and closer, the spacecraft will finally sweep through the Pluto system on July 14 of this year.
In our lifetimes, the New Horizons mission is the only spacecraft mission directly aimed at Pluto. The spacecraft has been traveling toward Pluto for 9 years; when it was launched, Pluto was still considered a full-fledged planet of our solar system. Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said:
Pluto is finally becoming more than just a pinpoint of light. LORRI has now resolved Pluto, and the dwarf planet will continue to grow larger and larger in the images as New Horizons spacecraft hurtles toward its targets. The new LORRI images also demonstrate that the camera’s performance is unchanged since it was launched more than nine years ago.
Over the next few months, LORRI will take hundreds of pictures of Pluto, against a starry backdrop, to refine the team’s estimates of New Horizons’ distance to Pluto.
As in these first images, the Pluto system will resemble little more than bright dots in the camera’s view until late in northern spring. The images aren’t just for show. Mission navigators will be using them to design course-correcting engine maneuvers to direct the spacecraft for a more precise approach. The first such maneuver based on these optical navigation images – or OpNavs – is scheduled for March 10.
Closing in on Pluto at about 31,000 mph, New Horizons already has covered more than 3 billion miles since it launched on Jan. 19, 2006.
Its journey has taken it past each planet’s orbit, from Mars to Neptune, in record time, and it is now in the first stage of an encounter with Pluto that includes long-distance imaging as well as dust, energetic particle and solar wind measurements to characterize the space environment near Pluto.
Come July … Pluto!
View larger. | A comparison of images of Pluto and its large moon Charon, taken in July 2014 and January 2015. Between takes, New Horizons had more than halved its distance to Pluto, from about 264 million miles (425 million kilometers) to 126 million miles (203 million kilometers). Pluto and Charon are four times brighter than and twice as large as in July, and Charon clearly appears more separated from Pluto. And it’s only going to get better from here.
Bottom line: On the 99th anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh’s 99th birth (February 4, 2015), the New Horizon’s spacecraft mission has released images of Pluto and the largest of its five moons, Charon. New Horizons will sweep through the Pluto system in July, 2015.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1KezSrf
Pluto and Charon, the largest of its five moons, as seen by New Horizons. Image via NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.
Now things are about to get exciting! On February 4, 2015 – 99th anniversary of the birth of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930 – NASA released new images of Pluto and its largest moon Charon. The images were captured by LORRI – New Horizons’ telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager – on January 25 and 27, 2015. New Horizons was about 126 million miles (203 million kilometers) from Pluto when the frames to make the first image were taken, and about 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) closer for the second set. Closer and closer, the spacecraft will finally sweep through the Pluto system on July 14 of this year.
In our lifetimes, the New Horizons mission is the only spacecraft mission directly aimed at Pluto. The spacecraft has been traveling toward Pluto for 9 years; when it was launched, Pluto was still considered a full-fledged planet of our solar system. Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said:
Pluto is finally becoming more than just a pinpoint of light. LORRI has now resolved Pluto, and the dwarf planet will continue to grow larger and larger in the images as New Horizons spacecraft hurtles toward its targets. The new LORRI images also demonstrate that the camera’s performance is unchanged since it was launched more than nine years ago.
Over the next few months, LORRI will take hundreds of pictures of Pluto, against a starry backdrop, to refine the team’s estimates of New Horizons’ distance to Pluto.
As in these first images, the Pluto system will resemble little more than bright dots in the camera’s view until late in northern spring. The images aren’t just for show. Mission navigators will be using them to design course-correcting engine maneuvers to direct the spacecraft for a more precise approach. The first such maneuver based on these optical navigation images – or OpNavs – is scheduled for March 10.
Closing in on Pluto at about 31,000 mph, New Horizons already has covered more than 3 billion miles since it launched on Jan. 19, 2006.
Its journey has taken it past each planet’s orbit, from Mars to Neptune, in record time, and it is now in the first stage of an encounter with Pluto that includes long-distance imaging as well as dust, energetic particle and solar wind measurements to characterize the space environment near Pluto.
Come July … Pluto!
View larger. | A comparison of images of Pluto and its large moon Charon, taken in July 2014 and January 2015. Between takes, New Horizons had more than halved its distance to Pluto, from about 264 million miles (425 million kilometers) to 126 million miles (203 million kilometers). Pluto and Charon are four times brighter than and twice as large as in July, and Charon clearly appears more separated from Pluto. And it’s only going to get better from here.
Bottom line: On the 99th anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh’s 99th birth (February 4, 2015), the New Horizon’s spacecraft mission has released images of Pluto and the largest of its five moons, Charon. New Horizons will sweep through the Pluto system in July, 2015.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1KezSrf
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