This movie, from New Horizons’ highest-resolution imager, shows Pluto and Charon as the spacecraft closes in on the Pluto system for a July 14 flyby.
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
In the annotated version, below, Pluto’s prime meridian (the region of the planet that faces Charon) is shown in yellow and the equator is shown in pink.
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This time-lapse approach movie was made from images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera aboard New Horizons spacecraft taken between May 28 and June 25, 2015. During that time the spacecraft distance to Pluto decreased almost threefold, from about 35 million miles to 14 million miles (56 million kilometers to 22 million kilometers). The images show Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, growing in apparent size as New Horizons closes in. As it rotates, Pluto displays a strongly contrasting surface dominated by a bright northern hemisphere, with a discontinuous band of darker material running along the equator. Charon has a dark polar region, and there are indications of brightness variations at lower latitudes.
Methane detected
The infrared spectrometer on the New Horizons spacecraft has detected frozen methane on Pluto’s surface; Earth-based astronomers first observed the chemical compound on Pluto in 1976.
Will Grundy is the New Horizons Surface Composition team leader with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Grundy said:
We already knew there was methane on Pluto, but these are our first detections,” said “Soon we will know if there are differences in the presence of methane ice from one part of Pluto to another.
Methane (chemical formula CH4) is an odorless, colorless gas that is present underground and in the atmosphere on Earth. On Pluto, methane may be primordial, inherited from the solar nebula from which the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.
New Horizons is Earth’s fast-moving spacecraft yet, but it has been traveling for nine years – nearly a decade – to make the 3 billion mile (5 billion km) journey to Pluto. During its close encounter with Pluto, New Horizons will fly within 7,750 miles (12,500 km) of the dwarf planet and capture the first-ever close-up views of this little world and its system of five known moons.
The video below captures the excitement of the upcoming July 14 spacecraft encounter with Pluto. The real thing will be better and is just ahead!
The New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby of the Pluto system is on July 14, 2015. Newest images and updates.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1Jxz5oa
This movie, from New Horizons’ highest-resolution imager, shows Pluto and Charon as the spacecraft closes in on the Pluto system for a July 14 flyby.
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
In the annotated version, below, Pluto’s prime meridian (the region of the planet that faces Charon) is shown in yellow and the equator is shown in pink.
Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
This time-lapse approach movie was made from images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera aboard New Horizons spacecraft taken between May 28 and June 25, 2015. During that time the spacecraft distance to Pluto decreased almost threefold, from about 35 million miles to 14 million miles (56 million kilometers to 22 million kilometers). The images show Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, growing in apparent size as New Horizons closes in. As it rotates, Pluto displays a strongly contrasting surface dominated by a bright northern hemisphere, with a discontinuous band of darker material running along the equator. Charon has a dark polar region, and there are indications of brightness variations at lower latitudes.
Methane detected
The infrared spectrometer on the New Horizons spacecraft has detected frozen methane on Pluto’s surface; Earth-based astronomers first observed the chemical compound on Pluto in 1976.
Will Grundy is the New Horizons Surface Composition team leader with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Grundy said:
We already knew there was methane on Pluto, but these are our first detections,” said “Soon we will know if there are differences in the presence of methane ice from one part of Pluto to another.
Methane (chemical formula CH4) is an odorless, colorless gas that is present underground and in the atmosphere on Earth. On Pluto, methane may be primordial, inherited from the solar nebula from which the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.
New Horizons is Earth’s fast-moving spacecraft yet, but it has been traveling for nine years – nearly a decade – to make the 3 billion mile (5 billion km) journey to Pluto. During its close encounter with Pluto, New Horizons will fly within 7,750 miles (12,500 km) of the dwarf planet and capture the first-ever close-up views of this little world and its system of five known moons.
The video below captures the excitement of the upcoming July 14 spacecraft encounter with Pluto. The real thing will be better and is just ahead!
The New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby of the Pluto system is on July 14, 2015. Newest images and updates.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1Jxz5oa
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