Tag: New Horizons

  • New Horizons takes aim on next target

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    Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft’s encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object. Credit: NASA/SWRI/JHUAPL/Alex Parker In a triumph of deep space navigation and with Pluto shrinking in its wake, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has steered on a course to reach a tiny object named 2014 MU69 for a whirlwind visit on New Year’s Day…

  • A crescent Pluto shines like a jewel in the Kuiper Belt

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    This image, taken 15 minutes after the New Horizons spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto on July 14, reveals the distant world’s rugged terrain and atmospheric haze layers. This image, first published in early September, was re-released by NASA Thursday after further image progressing to bring out details. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI An image released Thursday, taken by…

  • Initial Pluto flyby science results published

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This high-resolution image captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). The bright expanse is the western lobe of the “heart,” informally called Sputnik Planum, which has been found to be rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide…

  • Skies are blue and water ice is red on Pluto

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    Pluto’s haze layer shows its blue color in this picture taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturn’s moon Titan. The source of both hazes likely involves sunlight-initiated chemical reactions of nitrogen and methane, leading to relatively small,…

  • Charon takes center stage in new batch of New Horizons images

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    This enhanced color view of Charon comes from New Horizons’ Ralph color camera. The colors highlight the subtle variations in the composition of Charon’s crust, with the reddish region near the north pole — informally named Mordor Macular — standing out most prominently. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute With a meandering…

  • Secrets behind Pluto’s pastels far from being answered

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    In this extended color image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, rounded and bizarrely textured mountains, informally named the Tartarus Dorsa, rise up along Pluto’s day-night terminator and show intricate but puzzling patterns of blue-gray ridges and reddish material in between. This view, roughly 330 miles (530 kilometers) across, combines blue, red and…

  • Haunting sunset vista shows foggy hazes on Pluto

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    Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to…

  • Haunting sunset vista shows foggy hazes on Pluto

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    Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to…

  • Scientists revel in latest Pluto close-ups

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    This synthetic perspective view of Pluto, based on the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) above Pluto’s equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, informally named Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth, expanse of icy plains…

  • Distant ice ball to become farthest object ever visited

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    Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft flying by a Kuiper Belt Object. Credit: Alex Parker A frozen fragment left over from the formation of the solar system is set to become the most distant object ever explored by a human-built space probe, scientists working on the New Horizons mission said Friday. The selection is…