NASA Releases High Resolution Pictures of Pluto
In December 2015, NASA released the first high-resolution image of Pluto captured by New Horizon. The spacecraft captured these pictures during its closest flyby of July 2015.
Since July, New Horizons has sent many compressed images, and other data to Earth, but some of the best, high resolution images are reaching to NASA now. The space had recently captured pictures of a remote object present on Kuiper Belt.
These pictures – resolution of 250 to 280 feet per pixel – are very detailed, with each picture revealing a unique part of Pluto, the icy, dwarf planet. These images show mountainous, cratered terrains on Pluto.
The Sputnik planum “plains” region shown in one picture is made of nitrogen-ice. This nitrogen-ice is denser compared to water-ice.
The new images also tell about the layered icy surface of Pluto, much like Earth’s sedimentary rocks.
One image provides evidence of erosion and faulting on Pluto, and suggest that dwarf planet is probably tectonically active.
“The new details revealed here, particularly the crumpled ridges in the rubbly material surrounding several of the mountains, reinforce our earlier impression that the mountains are huge ice blocks that have been jostled and tumbled and somehow transported to their present locations.” said John Spencer, a New Horizons science team member.
“Nothing of this quality was available for Venus or Mars until decades after their first flybys; yet at Pluto we’re there already – down among the craters, mountains and ice fields – less than five months after flyby!” Spencer said.
An Introduction to New Horizons
New Horizons is basically an interplanetary space probe whose primary mission was to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system. The secondary mission of this spacecraft was to fly by and examine one or more objects in the Kuiper belt. The probe was engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), under the guidance of S. Alan Stern.
New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was launched directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory. The spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter on February 28, 2007, flying at a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.3 million kilometers).
The gravity assist received from Jupiter flyby increased New Horizons’ speed. After passing Jupiter, the probe went in hibernation mode to preserve on-board systems. New Horizons was brought back online mode on December 6, 2014 for the instrument check for Pluto encounter. On July 14, 2015, the spacecraft was flying about 7,800 miles (12,500 km) above the surface of Pluto. After completing it flyby of Pluto, New Horizons moved ahead for a flyby of Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69. This encounter is expected to take place on January 1, 2019.
New Horizons Mission Details
The first in NASA’s New Frontiers mission category, New Horizons mission is bigger and more expensive than the Discovery missions. The cost of the whole mission (including spacecraft development, instrument development, launch vehicle, operations, analysis, etc.) is approximately $700 million over 15 years (2001–2016).
The spacecraft is carrying with it multiple science equipment, cultural artifacts, a Flag of the United States, a compact disc storing 434,738 names, a “Not Yet Explored” USPS stamp, a piece of Scaled Composites’s SpaceShipOne, and other mementos. Also aboard the spacecraft are 30 grams of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes – the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.
New Horizons Mission Goal
The main goal of New Horizons mission is to understand the formation of the Pluto system as well as the Kuiper belt, and the transformation of the early Solar System. The spacecraft has already collected much data related to atmosphere, surfaces, and environments of Pluto and its moons. It is now moving ahead to study other objects in the Kuiper belt.
Scientific Instruments
New Horizons carried with it seven instruments: two plasma instruments, three optical instruments, a dust sensor and a radio science receiver/radiometer. These instruments will help scientists investigate the geology, surface temperature, surface composition, atmospheric pressure/temperature, and escape rate of Pluto and its moons. The Ultrastable Oscillator subsystem on New Horizons will be used to test the Pioneer anomaly towards the end of the spacecraft’s life.
Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager
The Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is the long-range camera designed for high resolution at visible wavelengths. This instrument features a 1024×1024 pixel by 12-bits-per-pixel monochromatic CCD imager, in addition to a 208.3-mm aperture which gives a resolution of 5 µrad. Overall mass of LORRI is about 8.6 kg. The Ritchey-Chretien mirrors in LORRI are made of silicon carbide which help increase the stiffness of the instrument and also reduce its weight.
Solar Wind At Pluto
Solar Wind At Pluto (SWAP) is a toroidal electrostatic analyzer (TEA) and retarding potential analyzer (RPA). SWAP and PEPSSI are the two instruments which comprise New Horizons’ Plasma and high-energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM). SWAP features the largest aperture of any such instrument ever sent in space, and is able to measure particles of up to 6.5 keV.
Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI)
PEPSSI is a time of flight ion and electron sensor, which can measure particles of up to 1 MeV.
Alice
Alice is an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, designed to determine the atmospheric composition of Pluto. Alice and Ralph telescope are the two photographic instruments which comprise New Horizons’ Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI).
Ralph Telescope
The aperture of the Ralph telescope is 6 cm. It has two separate channels: (1) a visible-light CCD imager (Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera) with broadband and color channels, and (2) Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA) – a near-infrared imaging spectrometer.
Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter
The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter (VBSDC) was designed to make dust measurements on Pluto. It was created by students at the University of Colorado Boulder, and consists of a detector panel and an electronics box. The detector panel is about 460 mm × 300 mm and is mounted on the anti-solar face of the New Horizons spacecraft (the ram direction).
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