Tag: Pluto
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Water ice abounds in Pluto’s frigid bedrock
This false-color image, derived from observations in infrared light by the Ralph/Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) instrument, shows where the spectral features of water ice are abundant on Pluto’s surface. It is based on two LEISA scans of Pluto obtained on July 14, 2015, from a range of about 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers). The…
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Map reveals that there’s more water ice on Pluto
This false-color infrared image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows water ice concentrations on Pluto. The left image is the result of an initial analysis, and the right image has been reprocessed to account for mixtures with other types of ice. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) A color-coded map from NASA’s New Horizons mission…
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‘Planet Nine’? Astronomers boost the case for a large, unseen Planet X
An artist’s conception shows a “super-Earth” planet far from the sun. (Credit: R. Hurt / IPAC / Caltech) For decades, astronomers have gone back and forth over whether a “Planet X” exists on the edge of our solar system – and now two researchers have laid out new evidence supporting the claim, including a rough idea…
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New Horizons team shares new X-Files from Pluto
This image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows patterns in the nitrogen glaciers of an area informally named Sputnik Planum – including an X shape just to the right and below the image’s center. The darker patch at the center of the image is probably a dirty block of water ice “floating” in the denser…
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Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard New Horizons, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s…
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Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard New Horizons, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s…
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Postal Service geeks out with space stamps for Pluto, planets, the moon and Star Trek
The U.S. Postal Service’s souvenir sheet of four stamps contains two new stamps appearing twice. The first stamp shows an artist’s rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft and the second shows the spacecraft’s enhanced color image of Pluto taken near closest approach. (Credit: Antonio Alcala / USPS) For the first time since 1991, Pluto and…
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New Horizons probe sends more amazing pics of Pluto and a tiny moon called Nix
The New Horizons probe got a look at craters containing dark material during its July 14 Pluto flyby. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) The hits just keep on coming from NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto: This week’s stunners include views of the surface that look weirder than the terrain in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,”…
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NASA’s New Horizons mission colorizes Pluto’s close-up – and zooms in on its pits
This enhanced color mosaic combines image data from two cameras on NASA’s New Horizons probe. (Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI) The Pluto pictures from NASA’s New Horizons probe just keep getting better and better: Feast your eyes on this colorized view of the border between the towering al-Idrisi mountains made of water ice, and…
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Rugged swath of Pluto now resolved in color
A cosmic shoreline is pictured here, where the vast icy plain informally named Sputnik Planum borders rugged mountains made of water ice blocks standing up to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) tall. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute A high-resolution scan of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft published last week is now…