New Horizons: A mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt

[Rick]

With Trajectory Correction, NASA's New Horizons Homes in on Pluto

A 93-second thruster burst today slightly adjusted the New Horizons spacecraft's trajectory toward Pluto.

This was the first maneuver of New Horizons' approach phase to Pluto; it was planned to slow the spacecraft's velocity by just 1.14 meters per second – barely a tap on the brakes for a probe moving about 14.5 kilometers per second – and moved its July 14 arrival time back on schedule with a change from the pre-burn course of 14 minutes and 30 seconds. It will also shift the course "sideways" (if looking from Earth) by 3,442 kilometers (2,139 miles) by July 14, sending the spacecraft toward a desired flyby close-approach target point. The shift was based on the latest orbit predictions of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, estimated from various sources, including optical-navigation images of the Pluto system taken by New Horizons in January and February.

Using commands transmitted to the spacecraft on March 8, the thrusters began firing at 5:15 a.m. EDT, and stopped just 93 seconds later. Initial telemetry later indicated the spacecraft was healthy and fired on command reached the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at APL through NASA's Deep Space Network at noon EDT; detailed data from the spacecraft's Guidance and Control system – which will show the team how accurately the maneuver performed as designed – is expected later today.

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150310

[Mike]

Have you seen the latest images from New Horizons (and video) ?

PLUTO VIDEO

Pluto doesn't look spherical at all. It looks decidedly potato shaped in this video.

[Rick]

NASA's New Horizons Detects Surface Features, Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

For the first time, images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft are revealing bright and dark regions on the surface of faraway Pluto – the primary target of the New Horizons close flyby in mid-July.

The images were captured in early to mid-April from within 70 million miles (113 million kilometers), using the telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera on New Horizons. A technique called image deconvolution sharpens the raw, unprocessed images beamed back to Earth. New Horizons scientists interpreted the data to reveal the dwarf planet has broad surface markings – some bright, some dark – including a bright area at one pole that may be a polar cap.

"As we approach the Pluto system we are starting to see intriguing features such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole, starting the great scientific adventure to understand this enigmatic celestial object," says John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "As we get closer, the excitement is building in our quest to unravel the mysteries of Pluto using data from New Horizons."

More: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-detects-surface-features-possible-polar-cap-on-pluto

[Rick]

New Horizons Spots Pluto's Faintest Known Moons

It's a complete Pluto family photo – or at least a photo of the family members we've already met.

For the first time, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has photographed Kerberos and Styx – the smallest and faintest of Pluto's five known moons. Following the spacecraft's detection of Pluto's giant moon Charon in July 2013, and Pluto's smaller moons Hydra and Nix in July 2014 and January 2015, respectively, New Horizons is now within sight of all the known members of the Pluto system.

"New Horizons is now on the threshold of discovery," said mission science team member John Spencer, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "If the spacecraft observes any additional moons as we get closer to Pluto, they will be worlds that no one has ever seen before."

Drawing even closer to Pluto in mid-May, New Horizons will begin its first search for new moons or rings that might threaten the spacecraft on its passage through the Pluto system. The images of faint Styx and Kerberos shown here are allowing the search team to refine the techniques they will use to analyze those data, which will push the sensitivity limits even deeper.

Kerberos and Styx were discovered in 2011 and 2012, respectively, by New Horizons team members using the Hubble Space Telescope. Styx, circling Pluto every 20 days between the orbits of Charon and Nix, is likely just 4 to 13 miles (approximately 7 to 21 kilometers) in diameter, and Kerberos, orbiting between Nix and Hydra with a 32-day period, is just 6 to 20 miles (approximately 10 to 30 kilometers) in diameter. Each is 20 to 30 times fainter than Nix and Hydra.

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150512

[Rick]

New Horizons Sees More Detail as It Draws Closer to Pluto

What a difference 20 million miles makes! Images of Pluto from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft are growing in scale as the spacecraft approaches its mysterious target. The new images, taken May 8-12 using a powerful telescopic camera and downlinked last week, reveal more detail about Pluto's complex and high-contrast surface.

"These new images show us that Pluto's differing faces are each distinct; likely hinting at what may be very complex surface geology or variations in surface composition from place to place," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "These images also continue to support the hypothesis that Pluto has a polar cap whose extent varies with longitude; we'll be able to make a definitive determination of the polar bright region's iciness when we get compositional spectroscopy of that region in July."

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150527

See also on APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150527.html

[Rick]

So Far, All Clear: New Horizons Team Completes First Search for Pluto System Hazards

NASA's New Horizons team has analyzed the first set of hazard-search images of the Pluto system taken by the approaching spacecraft itself – and so far, all looks clear for the spacecraft's safe passage.

The observations were made May 11-12 from a range of 47 million miles (76 million kilometers) using the telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons. For these observations, LORRI was instructed to take 144 10-second exposures, designed to allow a highly sensitive search for faint satellites, rings or dust sheets in the system. The mission team is looking carefully for any indications of dust or debris that might threaten New Horizons before the spacecraft's flight through the Pluto system on July 14; a particle as small as a grain of rice could be fatal.

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150528

[Rick]

XKCD's take...

[Rick]

Different Faces of Pluto Emerging in New Images from New Horizons

The surface of Pluto is becoming better resolved as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft speeds closer to its July flight through the Pluto system.

A series of new images obtained by the spacecraft's telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) during May 29-June 2 show Pluto is a complex world with very bright and very dark terrain, and areas of intermediate brightness in between. These images afford the best views ever obtained of the Pluto system.

New Horizons scientists used a technique called deconvolution to sharpen the raw, unprocessed pictures that the spacecraft beams back to Earth; the contrast in these latest images has also been stretched to bring out additional details. Deconvolution can occasionally produce artifacts, so the team will be carefully reviewing newer images taken from closer range to determine whether some of the tantalizing details seen in the images released today persist. Pluto's non-spherical appearance in these images is not real; it results from a combination of the image-processing technique and Pluto's large variations in surface brightness.

Since April, deconvolved images from New Horizons have allowed the science team to identify a wide variety of broad surface markings across Pluto, including the bright area at one pole that scientists believe is a polar cap.

More from NASA.

[Carole]

It's interesting to see that it is not completely round but has some bumps.

Carole

[Mike]

Still looks like a potato to me. Doesn't look round at all.

[Rick]

One Month from Pluto: New Horizons on Track, All Clear, and Ready for Action

Now within one month of the historic Pluto flyby, NASA's New Horizons team has executed a small but important course correction for the spacecraft, completed updated analyses of possible hazards in the Pluto system, and is picking up the pace of science-data collection.

A 45-second thruster burst on June 14 refined New Horizons' trajectory toward Pluto, targeting the optimal aim point for the spacecraft's flight through the Pluto system.

This was only the second targeting maneuver of New Horizons' approach to Pluto; Sunday's burst adjusted the spacecraft's velocity by just 52 centimeters per second, aiming it toward the desired close-approach target point approximately 7,750 miles above Pluto's surface.

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150615

[ApophisAstros]

Cool video.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oreeRm7Gj9k

Roger

[Rick]

Exactly 37 Years after Its Discovery, Pluto's Moon Charon Is Being Revealed

In June 1978, U.S. Naval Observatory astronomer James Christy noticed something unusual. He was studying highly magnified photos of Pluto, and Pluto wasn't round. A small bump marred one side of blurry Pluto.

That bump turned out to be Pluto's largest moon, Charon, whose discovery Christy (working with late colleague Robert Harrington), made on June 22, 1978. Like Pluto in 1930, Charon was found using photographic plates taken in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Thirty-seven years later, Charon is about to be revealed by NASA's New Horizons mission. As New Horizons draws closer by nearly a million miles a day, every observation of it brings new knowledge about this mysterious moon – a world far larger than even the largest asteroid, Ceres.

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150622-2

[Rick]

Increasing Variety on Pluto's Close Approach Hemisphere, and a 'Dark Pole' on Charon

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft doesn't pass Pluto until July 14 – but the mission team is making new discoveries as the piano-sized probe bears down on the Pluto system.

In a long series of images obtained by New Horizons' telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) May 29-June 19, Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, appear to more than double in size. From this rapidly improving imagery, scientists on the New Horizons team have found that the "close approach hemisphere" on Pluto that New Horizons will fly over has the greatest variety of terrain types seen on the planet so far. They have also discovered that Charon has a "dark pole" – a mysterious dark region that forms a kind of anti-polar cap.

More: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150622-3

[Rick]

The PI's Perspective: Build the Buzz!

We are now deep in the encounter, and already seeing just how interesting Pluto and Charon promise to be. There's only one Pluto flyby planned in all of history, and it's happening next month!

New Horizons is healthy and has so far been conducting a textbook approach—all systems are 'Go' for the flyby! The mission team is very, very busy now, simultaneously planning and testing the last stages of flyby instructions for the spacecraft, analyzing daily data downlinks, navigating the spacecraft to its precise aim point near Pluto, and searching for possible hazards in the Pluto system — though, so far, the coast is clear. As to mission navigation, we performed a successful engine maneuver on June 14, and there is a good chance we'll do another small trim maneuver on July 1 to line up for the best possible Pluto science at closest approach on July 14. Stay tuned for more on that engine burn possibility.

More in The PI's Perspective