Pluto is definitely a planet and should not have been downgraded, say some scientists



[ad_1]

When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew over Pluto in July 2015, she captured this image of the main mountain ranges where she meets a vast icy plain called Sputnik Planitia. The ridges of these photos have now been identified as dunes made up of solid methane ice grains.

New Horizons photographed what scientists call a "blade" terrain near the heart-shaped region of the dwarf planet. This 3D image was created using two images taken about 14 minutes apart on July 14th. The first image was taken about 16,000 miles (25,000 kilometers) from Pluto and the second was taken. Take out your 3D glasses for the best view.

The New Horizons team discovered an exotic mountain range covered with methane snow on Pluto. NASA released March 3 an image of snow-capped mountains extending over the dark expanse of Cthulhu.

On February 4, 2015, NASA released a photo of what she suspects is an image of floating hills on the surface of Pluto. The hills are made of water ice and are suspended over a sea of ​​nitrogen.

This image in infrared light shows that water ice is abundant on the surface of Pluto. The image was created using two Pluto scans made by the New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, while the spacecraft was about 108,000 kilometers above Pluto.

These photos show the variety of Pluto's textures, including what NASA calls "rounded and oddly textured mountains". The mountains are unofficially known as Tartarus Dorsa. This image shows approximately 330 miles (530 kilometers) of Pluto's lot. It combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph / Multispectral visual imaging camera of the space probe. The images were taken on July 14, during the overflight of the probe. They were released on September 24th.

The photos taken by New Horizons just before his closest approach to Pluto on July 14 are the clearest images to date of Pluto's varied terrain. This high resolution image reveals the details of two ice mountains. The image covers 75 miles (120 kilometers) of Pluto's surface.

This image of Pluto's surface was taken just 15 minutes after NASA's New Horizon spacecraft approached the icy planet on July 14th. Looking at the Sun, the spacecraft's camera captured more than twelve layers, at least 100 kilometers above the surface. The photo was connected to the Earth on September 13th.

This image of the frozen and mountainous Pluto landscapes was taken at a distance of 17,700 kilometers. "This image really makes you feel like you're here in Pluto, studying the landscape yourself," said Alan Stern, senior scientist at New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado.

This image is a synthesis of new high-resolution downlink images from New Horizons. The Great Frozen Plains have been nicknamed Sputnik Planum. This image is in perspective over the equatorial area of ​​Pluto. Astronomers began downloading a spacecraft data file during the Labor Day weekend, September 5-7.

Scientists say that what looks like mountains could be huge blocks of frozen water suspended in frozen nitrogen. On the new photos taken on July 14 and broadcast on September 10, a pixel is 400 meters. The closest passage to New Horizons by Pluto took it to about 50,000 miles from the surface.

The landscape of Pluto has a lot of variety: plains, mountains, craters and what seems like dunes. The smallest details on the photos are about half a mile wide. The area with the craters is old, say the scientists. Smooth and frozen planes are relatively young.

Just before its closest approach to Pluto on July 14th, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft photographed this photo of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The photo was taken at a distance of 290,000 miles. The North Pole region of Charon is distinctly dark. This photo was published on September 10th.

This new image of Pluto stuns the planetary scientists. It shows the atmosphere of the small world, backlit by the sun. NASA says the image shows layers of fog that are several times higher than expected. The photo was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft seven hours after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14th. New Horizons was about 1.25 million kilometers from Pluto at the time.

The images taken from the heart-shaped form of Pluto, unofficially known as Tombaugh Regio, reveal a "vast crater-free plain that seems to be no more than 100 million years old," NASA said on July 17. process. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 and has traveled 3 billion kilometers to the dwarf planet.

Close-up images of a region close to the Pluto's equator revealed a giant surprise: a range of young mountains. NASA released the image on July 15th.

Remarkable new details on the largest moon of Pluto, Charon, are revealed in this image published on July 15th.

The latest spectral analysis of the New Horizons instrument Ralph was published on July 15th. It reveals an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from one place to another on the frozen surface of Pluto.

NASA team members and guests are counting on the spacecraft's approach to Pluto on July 14th.

This Pluto image was captured by New Horizons on July 13, about 16 hours before the closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles from Pluto's surface.

The colors of this image of Pluto and Charon are exaggerated to facilitate the visualization of their different characteristics. (These are not the actual colors of Pluto and Charon, and the two bodies are not really close together in space.) This image was created on July 13, a day before New Horizons gets closer to Pluto.

This Pluto image was captured by New Horizons on July 12th. The spacecraft was then 1.6 million kilometers from Pluto.

New Horizons took this photo of Charon on July 12th. It reveals a system of chasms larger than the Grand Canyon. The spacecraft was 1.6 million miles away when the image was taken.

New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles from Pluto and Charon when he took this picture on July 8th.

Do you see a heart on Pluto? This image was taken on July 7 by New Horizons about 5 million kilometers from the planet. Look down to the right and you will see a large bright area – about 1,200 miles across – that looks like a heart.

New Horizons took six black and white photos of Pluto and Charon between June 23 and 29. The images were combined with the color data of another instrument on the spacecraft to create the above images. The spacecraft was 15 million miles away when it started the sequence and 11 million miles when the last picture was taken.

Pluto is shown here with Charon in the images taken on June 25th and 27th. The image on the right shows a series of dark spots evenly spaced near the Pluto equator. Scientists hope to solve the problem as New Horizons approaches Pluto.

In April, New Horizons made a series of 13 images of Charon surrounding Pluto in six and a half days. As the images were taken, the spacecraft went from approximately 69 million miles of Pluto to 64 million miles.

Look carefully at the images above: they mark the first time New Horizons has photographed the smallest and weakest moons of Pluto, Kerberos and Styx. The images were taken from April 25 to May 1.

New Horizons used its color imager to capture this Pluto and Charon image on April 9th. It was the first color image taken by a spacecraft approaching Pluto and Charon, according to NASA. The spacecraft was about 71 million kilometers from Pluto when the photo was taken.

In August 2014, New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune, the last planet to move to Pluto. New Horizons took this picture of Neptune and her big moon Triton while she was about 2.45 billion kilometers from the planet – more than 26 times the distance between the Earth and our sun.

New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter and its Io volcanic moon in early 2007.

On the way to Pluto, New Horizons photographed these four big "Galilean" moons of Jupiter. Left: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

A white arrow indicates Pluto in this photo taken in September 2006 by New Horizons. The spacecraft was still about 2.6 billion kilometers from Pluto.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 but was only a grain of light in Earth's best telescopes until February 2010, when NASA published this photo. It was created by combining several images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope – each only a few pixels – using a technique called dithering. NASA says that it took four years and 20 computers to create the image permanently.

It was one of the best views of Pluto and its moon Charon before the New Horizons mission. The image was taken on 21 February 1994 by the European Space Agency's pale object camera on the Hubble Space Telescope.

An image of Pluto's Hubble Space Telescope and its moons. Charon is the largest moon near Pluto. The other four bright spots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.

New Horizons was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 19, 2006. The probe, the size of a piano, weighed nearly 1,054 pounds at launch. He has seven instruments on board to take pictures and sample Pluto's atmosphere. After completing his five-month Pluto study, the spacecraft will go further into the Kuiper Belt.

[ad_2]
Source link