Tag: New Horizons

  • Scientists eager for restart of Pluto photo pipeline

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    Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this global view of Pluto. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) away, show features as…

  • Scientists plan for New Horizons probe’s second act

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    Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft flying by a Kuiper Belt Object. Credit: Alex Parker Scientists are about to decide where to send NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft next, and it is down to two candidates at the frozen frontier of the solar system to become the most distant object ever visited by a human-built…

  • The heart of Pluto in high-resolution

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    The icy plains of Pluto resolved by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft stretch as wide as Texas, enveloping mountain ranges and bizarre hilly outcrops in a mosaic revealing one lobe of the distant world’s heart-shaped reservoir of exotic frozen carbon monoxide, nitrogen and methane. The mosaic, posted here with permission, was created by Marco Di Lorenzo…

  • NASA probe finds intriguing ice flows under hazy skies on Pluto

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    This new global mosaic of Pluto was created by combining four black-and-white images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager and color data from the probe’s Ralph instrument. The LORRI images were taken July 14, when New Horizons was approximately 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) from Pluto. Features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) are…

  • Pluto’s moons Nix and Hydra resolved

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    New views of Nix and Hydra, two of Pluto’s four smallest moons, show the tiny worlds in detail for the first time. The color image of Nix is from data obtained by the Ralph instrument on New Horizons from July 14 at a range of 102,000 miles. The spacecraft’s higher-resolution LORRI instrument collected the black-and-white…

  • Pluto probe’s camera sees striking geologic boundary

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    A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. This image was acquired by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and sent back to Earth on…

  • Fly over Pluto’s newly-explored surfaces

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    Using three images beamed back to Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft’s long-range camera, scientists created this jaw-dropping animation of what it might look like to buzz Pluto from 25 miles up. The animation includes two flyover scenes, first of a series of craggy ice mountains stretching more than two miles above their surrounding terrain.…

  • Scientists find signs of potential geysers on Pluto

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    This week’s New Horizons flyby of Pluto revealed unexpected terrain, such as these blocky patches of ice at a region dubbed Sputnik Planum. New Horizons’ LORRI camera took this image from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,00 kilometers) on July 14. The resolution is about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles). The large pixelated areas are caused…

  • Scientists share first close-up snapshot of Charon

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    The view of Charon in the inset of this image was taken by New Horizons’ LORRI camera around 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) on July 14, less than 90 minutes before closest approach to Pluto.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI A day after revealing mind-boggling ice mountains on Pluto, researchers from NASA’s New Horizons mission on Thursday released a…

  • 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…