Tag: Alan Stern

  • Scientists thrilled with mountains on Pluto, chasms on Charon

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION A snapshot of Pluto shows fresh deposits of water ice bedrock and 11,000-foot mountains, revealing evidence Pluto’s surface is one of the youngest in the solar system. Photo credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Post-flyby images from NASA’s New Horizons probe show Pluto is a surprisingly active world in the deep freeze…

  • Clear sailing expected for Pluto flyby

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    There is no sign of an undiscovered moon lurking around Pluto in data streaming back to Earth from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, and that is surprising to Alan Stern, the scientist in charge of the probe. Stern told reporters Sunday his biggest surprise from New Horizons’ first glances at Pluto is the lack of more moons…

  • Pluto stakes claim as ‘King of the Kuiper Belt’

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    Pluto’s bright, mysterious “heart” is rotating into view, ready for its close-up on close approach, in this image taken by New Horizons on July 12 from a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers). Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Using high-fidelity modeling and image analysis to resolve Pluto’s exact shape, scientists examining pictures from NASA’s New Horizons…

  • Question time with Alan Stern, the Pluto evangelist

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    Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal investigator, started thinking about a mission to Pluto in the 1980s. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani July is a month of rich rewards for Alan Stern, the scientist who shepherded the New Horizons spacecraft from the drawing board to Pluto, and the payoff will be sweet. New Horizons comes closest to Pluto…

  • Surface markings show up in newest Pluto imagery

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    Images of Pluto and its moon Charon taken by New Horizons from April 12-18 show the dwarf planet’s rotation and orbital motion. Credit: NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI Alan Stern, chief scientist on NASA’s New Horizons mission, said Wednesday he had an emotional “meet Pluto moment” when new imagery from the faraway space probe arrived on Earth showing the…

  • Pluto and Charon seen in color by New Horizons

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    The Ralph color imager on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took this image of Pluto and Charon on April 9 at a range of 71 million miles. NASA says the image is a “preliminary reconstruction” and will be refined later by the mission’s science team. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Barreling toward…

  • Pluto-bound probe tweaks its trajectory

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    Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft at Pluto. Credit: JHUAPL NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft fine-tuned its path toward Pluto on Tuesday, firing its rocket thrusters for 93 seconds to aim for a fleeting flyby of the distant dwarf planet July 14. The trajectory correction maneuver was successful, slowing the speed of New Horizons by…

  • NASA’s Pluto probe takes new pictures of target

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    A view of Pluto and its moon Charon from the New Horizons spacecraft’s LORRI camera. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Less than six months from a historic close-up of Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft has glimpsed its distant target at a range of 126 million miles, and better pictures are coming. The images show Pluto and its moon…

  • New Horizons lined up for final approach to Pluto

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    Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft, Pluto and its moon Charon. Credit: JHUAPL/SwRI Pluto is in the sights of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which started collecting around-the-clock science data Thursday as it speeds toward the first close encounter with the distant world in July. The mission’s encounter phase formally started Thursday with the activation…