Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20160421

April 21, 2016
Pluto’s ‘Halo’ Craters
Within Pluto’s informally named Vega Terra region is a field of eye-catching craters that looks like a cluster of bright halos scattered across a dark landscape.

 

[Notebook]

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-interaction-with-the-solar-wind-is-unique-study-finds

Pluto behaves less like a comet than expected and somewhat more like a planet like Mars or Venus in the way it interacts with the solar wind, a continuous stream of charged particles from the sun.

This is according to the first analysis of Pluto’s interaction with the solar wind, funded by NASA’s New Horizons mission and published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Space Physics by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

 

[Andy44]

New Horizons delivers first data on 1994 JR1

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20160518-2

Bit more info about Andy44's post above, and a graph!

N.

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20160601

June 1, 2016
Pluto's Heart: Like a Cosmic 'Lava Lamp'

Scientists from NASA's New Horizons mission used state-of-the-art computer simulations to show that the surface of Pluto's informally named Sputnik Planum is covered with churning ice "cells" that are geologically young and turning over due to a process called convection. The scene above, which is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) across, uses data from the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), gathered July 14, 2015. (Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Like a cosmic lava lamp, a large section of Pluto's icy surface is being constantly renewed by a process called convection that replaces older surface ices with fresher material. Combining computer models with topographic and compositional data gathered by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft last summer, New Horizons team members have determined the depth of this layer of solid nitrogen ice within Pluto's distinctive "heart" feature – a large plain informally known as Sputnik Planum – and how fast that ice is flowing. The study is published in the June 2 issue of the journal Nature.

 

[Ravenous]

Also same as Notebook's post, this BBC article has some info - and a link to the paper in Nature (which seems to be freely readable at the moment):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36428356

Fascinating stuff... I had a few lectures on convection at university and never thought I'd see it applied in this way

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?image_id=446

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft took this stunning image of Pluto only a few minutes after closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image was obtained at a high phase angle -that is, with the sun on the other side of Pluto, as viewed by New Horizons. Seen here, sunlight filters through and illuminates Pluto's complex atmospheric haze layers. The southern portions of the nitrogen ice plains informally named Sputnik Planum, as well as mountains of the informally named Norgay Montes, can also be seen across Pluto's crescent at the top of the image.

 

[Andy44]

Newest photo of Pluto stuns scientists

NASA just released the latest of these images, a high resolution look at Pluto's surface that shows much more diverse terrain than scientists anticipated.

There's a sharp dividing line where the smooth, flat ice plains in the southern part of Pluto's "heart" abut dark, rugged, mountainous highlands that rise 1.5 miles above the plains.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0613/Newest-photo-of-Pluto-stuns-scientists

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=448

 

[orb]

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-contrast-pluto-icy-moons.html

 

[orb]

NASA Blogs - Pluto New Horizons: A World Beyond Pluto: Finding a New Target for New Horizons

 

[orb]

NASA: Intricate Surface Patterns Revealed on Pluto’s Sputnik Planum:

{...}

The scattering map reveals that, with some exceptions, the centers of cells tend to be smoother, while their edges tend to be rougher and more pitted. The boundaries between ice cells in many cases tend to be even brighter and hence smoother than the cell centers. This pattern is very likely a consequence of the convective flow that New Horizons scientists think is taking place within the nitrogen ice of Sputnik Planum, where warmer ice rises at the centers of cells, travels outward, and descends at the edges, like a cosmic lava lamp.

{...}

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI-Perspectives.php?page=piPerspective_07_07_2016

Last Friday morning, July 1, I tweeted that we were exactly 2.5 years – to the day – from our hoped-for close flyby of our post-Pluto target on Jan. 1, 2019. Little did I know when I tweeted that, but NASA would announce its approval of our flyby later that same day!

There's no doubt – because NASA approved our extended mission to explore the Kuiper Belt (KB) through 2021 – July 1 marked a great day for New Horizons. Our new mission is called the New Horizons KEM, which stands for KB Extended Mission.

 

[RisingFury]

Our new mission is called the New Horizons KEM, which stands for KB Extended Mission.

NASA really needs to fire its entire Acronym department...

 

[GLS]

NASA really needs to fire its entire Acronym department...

ASAP :lol:
It has even gotten to probe and satellite names, that nowadays are way past stupid: "OSIRIS-REx", what the is that? What was wrong with Mariner 1, 2.... or Pioneer 1, 2, 3, etc?
/rant

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Our new mission is called the New Horizons KEM, which stands for KB Extended Mission.http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI-Perspectives.php?page=piPerspective_07_07_2016

It's acronyms all the way down. Reminds me of the joke:

Q: What does the "B" in Benoit B. Mandlebrot's middle name stand for?




A: Benoit B. Mandlebrot

 

[SolarLiner]

Q: What does the "B" in Benoit B. Mandlebrot's middle name stand for?




A: Benoit B. Mandlebrot

It's actually his middle name, abbreviated for space. His name is Benoit "Benoit B. Mandlebrot" Mandlebrot.

 

[K_Jameson]

ASAP :lol:
It has even gotten to probe and satellite names, that nowadays are way past stupid: "OSIRIS-REx", what the is that? What was wrong with Mariner 1, 2.... or Pioneer 1, 2, 3, etc?
/rant

I relly want a Voyager 6.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

No you don't. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20160714

July 14, 2016
Looking Back, a Year after Pluto
Where were you at 7:49 a.m. Eastern Time on July 14, 2015?

Three billion miles from Earth, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, moving at speeds that would get it from New York to Los Angeles in about four minutes, was focused on Pluto and its moons – distant worlds that humankind had never seen up close – recording hundreds of pictures and other data that would forever change our view of the outer solar system.

Imagine a future spacecraft following New Horizons' trailblazing path to Pluto, but instead...

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20160714-2

July 14, 2016

New Horizons’ Top 10 Pluto Pics

One year ago, NASA’s New Horizons mission made history by exploring Pluto and its moons – giving humankind our first real look at this fascinating world on the frontier of our solar system.

Since those amazing days in July 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft has transmitted numerous images and many other kinds of data home for scientists and the public alike to study, analyze, and just plain love. From Pluto’s iconic “heart” and sweeping ice‐ mountain vistas to its flowing glaciers and dramatic blue skies, it’s hard to pick just one favorite picture. So the mission team has picked 10 – and in no special order, placed them here.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-top-10-pluto-pics

 

[Notebook]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/pluto/2016/08/04/pluto-what-a-journey/

Now that most of the New Horizons science data have been downlinked to Earth, it seems only fitting to reflect on the long journey that took us to the frontier of our solar system. Below are some personal memories I’d like to share about this incredible voyage of discovery.