New Horizon's Mission to Pluto : Watch

Everyday we inch closer to Pluto and Charon we wait anxiously for new Images to roll in .

I Figured why not create a "watch" thread to keep continued updated Images of Pluto and Charon .

With that said I present to you the Best yet ! Image of Pluto and Charon !




Beautiful !! they are looking more like a Planets, far better than the Pixelated images we were getting earlier on.

You can also watch for new updates at the fallowing LINK

Look forward to unveiling the new Images with you !

from New Horizons’ highest-resolution imager, shows Pluto and Charon as the spacecraft closes in. In the annotated version, Pluto’s prime meridian (the region of the planet that faces Charon) is shown in yellow and the equator is shown in pink. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

the video is a timeline of captures from 05/2015 -06/2015 I believe .

Kap

a reply to: Kapusta

Wow.... cool idea for a thread! S&F

I sure am keen to find out what Pluto looks like! I estimate another 18 days at approx 1 M KM a day till we have a clear full image of Pluto... am i far off?

I posted a similar image today in another Pluto thread. I enlarged and cropped it, and the dark splotches of Pluto and Charon really stood out :

Full image (image from June 29):
New Horizons LORRI Image

New Horizons Image gallery from their website (updated often):
pluto.jhuapl.edu...

I think I spot a pyramid!

It must have been built by the intellectual elite of Ogo who subjugated the barbarian hordes of Pluto so long agogo.

Thanks for this thread. Will be checking in on a regular basis.

this i,m watching cloesly,nasa them selfs have said the dark patches they have no clue.

lets just hope that what ever they find they don,t try alter what ever it is.

this should be very interesting.

originally posted by: sparky31
this i,m watching cloesly,nasa them selfs have said the dark patches they have no clue.

lets just hope that what ever they find they don,t try alter what ever it is.

this should be very interesting.

They do have some ideas about the dark spots on Pluto, but that's all the are at the moment are ideas.

The idea is that the dark splotches on Pluto could be hydrocarbon tar and the brighter splotches could be frozen carbon monoxide. The dark spot on Charon is a new discovery (i think just made last week) so they haven't worked up any hypothesies on that yet.



Here's an article from several years ago on the splotches on Pluto:
Strange Spots on Pluto May be Tar and Frost

Excerpt:

he Hubble images, released in February, revealed Pluto as a molasses-colored world on the fringe of the solar system with surprising variations in brightness across its surface. Based on closer analysis, scientists say the darker spots may represent parts of the ground covered in a tar of primordial organic compounds.

"We know there's methane on Pluto," said dwarf planet expert Mike Brown of Caltech. "Here's what we think happens: Sunlight hits the methane and breaks it apart into its chemical components ??hydrocarbons. Over millions of years this process makes a dark reddish-brown oil or tar-like substance that sticks to the ground. These darker areas spread larger as they absorb more sunlight and cause additional frost to sublimate."

The bright spots, in turn, are thought to be related to areas covered in carbon monoxide frost.

Great idea! thx op

I'm happy to see a thread dedicated to New Horizon's approach and flyby of Pluto.

Here's my processed image from the latest LORRI image available at the moment:



I cropped and enlarged the original image, and used colour information from this image: www.nasa.gov...

What's cool is that if you compare the images taken about an hour apart, you can see Pluto getting bigger and bigger in the camera's field of view.

a reply to: wildespace

Hey Wild ! ty for your contribution ! What an amazing pic!

can't wait to see the future Images!

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Great idea! thx op

ty Zazz !

a reply to: Kapusta

That dark spot is looking very interesting.

Good thread idea

Something strikes me that it looks like if charon hasn't a reflecting surface. Is it because it's in the shadow of Pluto or the distance from the new horizon?

originally posted by: 0bserver1
Something strikes me that it looks like if charon hasn't a reflecting surface. Is it because it's in the shadow of Pluto or the distance from the new horizon?

It could be that Pluto may have frozen materials on its surface, such as carbon monoxide. It is thought that some of Pluto's atmosphere (of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane) may sometime freeze and fall to the surface. Charon may not have these icy materials.

How close will the probe get to Pluto? I couldn't find it on factsheet: www.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: MrCrow
How close will the probe get to Pluto? I couldn't find it on factsheet: www.nasa.gov...

The first sentence under the Encounter section reads:

At closest approach, the spacecraft comes about 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers) from Pluto and about 17,900 miles (28,800 kilometers) from Charon.

Follow this link to New Horizons-->Mission Design

originally posted by: MrCrow
How close will the probe get to Pluto? I couldn't find it on factsheet: www.nasa.gov...

About 7750 miles (12,500 km)



Source and more information:
New Horizons Mission Timeline



Edit To Add:
It should be noted (and many people already know this, but some do not) that New Horizons will only be flying by Pluto, with the whole close encounter lasting only a few short hours. It will NOT be going into orbit around Pluto and studying it for years. This is a one-shot deal, much like the fly-by missions of the Voyager probes in the 1980s.

This is because the speed of New Horizons is just too great and there is no way for the spacecraft to slow down enough to enter orbit (i.e., to have Pluto's gravity capture it). There is, however, an extended mission planned for New Horizons to go on to visit one other kuiper belt object in a few years. So this fleeting encounter with Pluto will not be the end of New Horizon's mission.

They look so small and far away in this pic. Scary. I really get a sense of the coldness of space from these images.

I am beside myself with excitement. I remember my whole class looking at the Voyaer 2 images of Neptune in 1988....this is going to be INCREDIBLE.

This is why i dont get people who feel the need to belive in imaginary things (wont say which here)....the world we live in is SO exciting , is it not enough?

Great - thanks! I see my Google-fu needs some work.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

 Charon may not have these icy materials.

I thought that ice would be something found on almost every moon or planet. I mean most of the time they find ice or water on most of the planets that are not to close to our sun.

It's highly speculative what it could be , we have to wait and see . But because it's the outer rim of our solar system I've got the feeling that it will be some new mystery planet moon constellation. ..