[meteorite-list] New Horizons Color Images Reveal Two Distinct Faces of Pluto, Series of Spots that Fascinate

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2015 17:46:44 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201507020046.t620kjeX015948_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-color-images-reveal-two-distinct-faces-of-pluto-series-of-spots-that-fascinate

New Horizons Color Images Reveal Two Distinct Faces of Pluto, Series of
Spots that Fascinate
July 1, 2015

New color images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft show two very different
faces of the mysterious dwarf planet, one with a series of intriguing
spots along the equator that are evenly spaced. Each of the spots is about
300 miles in diameter, with a surface area that's roughly the size of
the state of Missouri.

Scientists have yet to see anything quite like the dark spots; their presence
has piqued the interest of the New Horizons science team, due to the remarkable
consistency in their spacing and size. While the origin of the spots is
a mystery for now, the answer may be revealed as the spacecraft continues
its approach to the mysterious dwarf planet. "It's a real puzzle - we don't
know what the spots are, and we can't wait to find out," said New Horizons
principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute,
Boulder. "Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in
the colors and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and grayer moon
Charon."

New Horizons team members combined black-and-white images of Pluto and
Charon from the spacecraft's Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
with lower-resolution color data from the Ralph instrument to produce
these views. We see the planet and its largest moon in approximately true
color, that is, the way they would appear if you were riding on the New
Horizons spacecraft. About half of Pluto is imaged, which means features
shown near the bottom of the dwarf planet are at approximately at the
equatorial line.

New color images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft show two very different
faces of the mysterious dwarf planet, one with a series of intriguing
spots along the equator that are evenly spaced.

More New Horizons News for Wednesday, July 1:

Instruments Prepare to Search for Clouds in Pluto?s Atmosphere

If Pluto has clouds, New Horizons can detect them. Both the high-resolution
LORRI imager and the Ralph color imager will be used to look for clouds
across the face of Pluto during its approach and departure from the planet.
"We're looking for clouds in our images using a number of techniques,"
said science team postdoc Kelsi Singer of the Southwest Research Institute,
"If we find clouds, their presence will allow us to track the speeds and
directions of Pluto's winds."

New Horizons Team Says "Bravo!" To Earth-Based Pluto Observers

For more than two decades, planetary scientists have raced to get a spacecraft
to Pluto against predictions that its atmosphere would disappear - literally
freezing onto the surface - efore it could be explored. This week, planetary
scientists using ground-based telescopes and NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory
confirmed that "Pluto's atmosphere is alive and well, and has not frozen
out on the surface," according to New Horizons deputy project scientist
Leslie Young, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder. Added Young, "We're
delighted!"

"The SOFIA observations will also be essential for linking ground-based
studies to the results from the New Horizons Pluto encounter for decades
to come", said Cathy Olkin, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, co-investigator
on NASA's New Horizons mission.


PEPSSI Instrument Tastes Pluto's Atmosphere

The Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI)
instrument aboard New Horizons is sending back data daily, sampling the
space environment near Pluto. PEPSSI is designed to detect ions (atoms
that have lost or gained one or more electrons) that have escaped from
Pluto's atmosphere. As they depart, these atoms become caught up in the
solar wind, the stream of subatomic particles that emanates from the Sun.
PEPSSI's job is to tell scientists about the composition of Pluto's escaping
atmosphere and how quickly the atmosphere is escaping.

The location of New Horizons' Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science
Investigation (PEPSSI) instrument is shown.

New Horizons is now less than 9.5 million miles (15 million kilometers)
from the Pluto system. The spacecraft is healthy and all systems are operating
normally.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland,
designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research
Institute, based in San Antonio, leads the science team, payload operations
and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers
Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama.

To view images from New Horizons and learn more about the mission visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons and http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

Follow the New Horizons mission on social media, and use the hashtag #PlutoFlyby
to join the conversation. The mission's official NASA Twitter account
is _at_NASANewHorizons. Live updates are available on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/new.horizons1

Last Updated: July 1, 2015
Editor: Lillian Gipson
Received on Wed 01 Jul 2015 08:46:44 PM PDT