A spectacular sampling of imagery from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveals mountains and water ice bedrock on Pluto, an active crust on its largest moon Charon and the first resolved views of the icy world’s tiny mini-moons.
A snapshot of Pluto shows fresh deposits of water ice bedrock and 11,000-foot mountains, revealing evidence Pluto’s surface is one of the youngest in the solar system. Photo credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRINew Horizons found few craters on the surface of Pluto’s Texas-sized moon Charon, evidence of recent geologic activity. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRITuesday’s New Horizons flyby revealed Pluto’s tiny moon Hydra. The first resolved image of the object shows it to be 28 miles long and 19 miles in diameter, and better images are to come. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Using three images beamed back to Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft’s long-range camera, scientists created this jaw-dropping animation of what it might look like to buzz Pluto from 25 miles up.
Barreling toward a July 14 flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned its first color image of the distant world and its moon Charon, whetting the appetites of scientists as the probe prepares to begin taking the best-ever photos of the Pluto system beginning next month.
Queen guitarist and contributing New Horizons scientist Brian May wrote a song celebrating the spacecraft’s New Year’s flyby with Ultima Thule, a supposed block of ice and rock in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Pluto.
