After 9 Years, 5 Months & 4.745 Billion Km. New Horizons Is Now Weeks Away from Pluto

[9V-Orion Images]

Source Credit: Thomas Appéré
Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

An animated loop comprising of photographs as captured by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) with lower resolution colour information provided by the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) between 7th of July 2015 to 13th of July 2015 throughout one Pluto day (which has a sidereal rotation period of 6 days, 9 hours, 17 minutes and 36 seconds in synchronous with Charon).

Being the the most prominent geological feature on Pluto's surface, The Heart of Pluto as it's commonly now known has tentatively been named Tombaugh Regio in honour and memory of Clyde William Tombaugh (1906 – 1997), the American astronomer who discovered her existence on the 18th of February 1930.

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Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Portrait of Pluto and Charon

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The latest two full-frame images of Pluto and Charon were collected separately by New Horizons during approach on July 13 and July 14, 2015. The relative reflectivity, size, separation, and orientations of Pluto and Charon are approximated in this composite image, and they are shown in approximate true color.

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Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

NASA’s New Horizons Discovers Frozen Plains in the Heart of Pluto’s ‘Heart’

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In the center left of Pluto’s vast heart-shaped feature – informally named “Tombaugh Regio” - lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains and has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite. The surface appears to be divided into irregularly-shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as one-half mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The blocky appearance of some features is due to compression of the image.

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Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Frozen Plains in the Heart of Pluto’s 'Heart'

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This annotated view of a portion of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), named for Earth’s first artificial satellite, shows an array of enigmatic features. The surface appears to be divided into irregularly shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs, some of which contain darker materials. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The blocky appearance of some features is due to compression of the image.

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Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Homing in on Nix, Pluto's Small Satellite

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Homing in on Pluto's small satellite Nix, New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager captured this image, which shows features as small as 4 miles (6 kilometers across). Mission scientists believe we are looking at one end of an elongated body about 25 miles (40 kilometers) in diameter. The image was acquired on July 13 from a distance of about 360,000 miles (590,000 kilometers).

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[9V-Orion Images]

As of current (at the time that this posting is submitted), a media briefing and press conference is scheduled to begin in exactly five minutes from now at 2015-07-25 T 02:00:00 +8 (Singapore Standard Time (SST)). Relevant details are as follows...

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Members of NASA’s New Horizons team will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, July 24, to reveal new images and discuss latest science results from the spacecraft’s historic July 14 flight through the Pluto system.

The briefing will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. SW in Washington. NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the briefing live.

The briefing participants are:

* Jim Green, director of Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters

* Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado

* Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia

* William McKinnon, New Horizons co-investigator at Washington University in St. Louis

* Cathy Olkin, New Horizons deputy project scientist at SwRI

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You may catch the live broadcast at the following links...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Television (TV).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Television (TV) in High Definition (HD) on UStream.

 

[mccm33]

Repect our mother earth first then talk about others mother planet

Shame

 

[9V-Orion Images]

As of current (at the time that this posting is submitted), a media briefing and press conference is scheduled to begin in exactly five minutes from now at 2015-07-25 T 02:00:00 +8 (Singapore Standard Time (SST)). Relevant details are as follows...

:rbounce:

P.S.

This will be the last series of high resolution preliminary imagery out of the thousands captured during New Horizons' closest approach in the flyby of the dwarf planet, Pluto and its moon, Charon scheduled to be released for the next two months until somewhere approximately between the 14th of September 2015 and the 26th of September 2015.

:rbounce:

Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Global Mosaic of Pluto in True Color

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Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this sharper global view of Pluto. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) away from Pluto, show features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers). That’s twice the resolution of the single-image view captured on July 13 and revealed at the approximate time of New Horizons’ July 14 closest approach.

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Source Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Source Credit: Johns Hopkins University's (JHU's) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Stunning Nightside Image Reveals Pluto’s Hazy Skies

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Pluto sends a breathtaking farewell to New Horizons. Backlit by the sun, Pluto’s atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft around midnight EDT on July 15. This global portrait of the atmosphere was captured when the spacecraft was about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Pluto and shows structures as small as 12 miles across. The image, delivered to Earth on July 23, is displayed with north at the top of the frame.

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All right, many thanks for dropping by. This is it for me, seeing how I wouldn't be around for quite some time to come. It has been an incredibly amazing and exciting past several days of absolute new discoveries and findings in the history of planetary science..., comet 67P / C-G, dwarf planet Ceres and Pluto (alongside with her twin sister Charon) to Kepler-452b (a super-earth class exoplanet orbiting around a G2V-type main-sequence star just like our Sun)...!!!

As the saying goes (to paraphrase), we may be "born too late to explore the Earth and yet, born too early to explore the universe..." but just remember, centuries to millennium into the near future down the road as interstellar human civilisation spread its influence and presence throughout the Milky Way, we'll be the pioneering generations that began it all, paving the foundations by taking to the skies, pushing beyond the Kármán line into the final frontier, setting our sight towards the stars and reaching out for the unknown despite all the challenging difficulties and odds stacked against our favour.

Knowing this, being a part of it and that for me at least, means something of a significance throughout an entire aspect of my life. So for the time being, live long and prosper. This is Niner Victor - Orion signing off...