NEW HORIZONS ARRIVED AT PLUTO
by Hazed
On Tuesday, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto as it flew past the dwarf planet and its moons.
As it drew closer, it sent back a burst of data, which included a close-up image, the most detailed ever seen (see first source link below). Then it went quiet for the rest of the day, so it could use all its resources to make recordings, before starting to transmit back to Earth later that night.
On Wednesday morning, NASA started to release images and explain what the initial data showed. We got the first ever close up of the planet’s surface, which showed it has icy mountains ascending 11,000 feet.
More stuff is coming out every day so by the time you read this you will probably be able to find even more spectacular images that came out too late to be included in this edition of the Star.
We saw a high-res image of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, with cliffs that run for hundreds of miles across and canyons four to six miles deep.
It’s going to take months to receive all of New Horizons’ data and to analyse them. We can expect a steady stream of fascinating facts and images as scientists pore over the information. The data transfer rate is just 4KB per second, so it could take around 16 months to receive everything.
Meanwhile, New Horizons will keep on going, heading out to the furthest fringes of the Solar System and beyond. Its power source should last for 20 years, so it will be able to fly through the Kuiper belt and should be able to send us information about some of the small bodies there, which are remnants of the formation of the system.
The ship will be retracing the steps of the two Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977, but since New Horizons’ instruments are a lot more sophisticated than those on the older ships we should see much more detailed information about what lurks on the fringes of the Solar System.
Two interesting snippets about this mission: a sample of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh are on board the spacecraft. Who he? Well, he discovered Pluto, so it seems poetic that part of him should travel there.
The other thing that made me smile is that New Horizons is powered by plutonium – so it’s taking plutonium to Pluto.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33524589
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33537276
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33543383
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33574170
