Pluto Resolved
Image Credit & Copyright:
NASA,
Johns Hopkins Univ./APL,
Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation:
New Horizons has
survived its close encounter with Pluto and has resumed sending back images and data.
The robotic
spacecraft reported back
on time, with all
systems working, and with the expected
volume of data stored.
Featured here is the highest resolution image of
Pluto
taken before closest approach, an image that really brings
Pluto into a satisfying focus.
At first glance, Pluto is
reddish
and has several craters.
Toward the image bottom is a surprisingly featureless light-covered region that resembles an
iconic heart, and mountainous terrain appears on the lower right.
This image,
however, is only the beginning.
As
more images
and data pour in today, during the coming week,
and over the next year, humanity's understanding of
Pluto and its moons will likely become revolutionized.
New Horizons Passes Pluto and Charon
Image Credit & Copyright:
NASA,
Johns Hopkins Univ./APL,
Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation:
Will the New Horizons spacecraft survive its closest approach to Pluto and return useful images and data?
Humanity will know in a few hours.
Regardless of how well it functions,
New Horizon's
rapid speed will take it whizzing past Pluto and its moons today,
with the time of closest approach being at 11:50
UT (7:50 am
EDT).
To better take images and data, though, the robotic spacecraft was
preprogrammed and taken intentionally out of contact with the Earth until about 1:00 am
UT July 15, which corresponds to about 9:00 pm
EDT on July 14.
Therefore, much of mankind will be holding its breath through this day, hoping that the
piano-sized spacecraft
communicates again with
ground stations on Earth.
Hopefully, at that time,
New Horizons will begin beaming back new and
enlightening data about a world that has remained remote and mysterious since its
discovery
85 years ago.
Featured above is a New Horizons composite image of the moon
Charon (left) and
Pluto (right) taken 3 days ago, already showing
both worlds in unprecedented detail.
Last Look at Pluto's Charon Side
Image Credit & Copyright:
NASA,
Johns Hopkins Univ./APL,
Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation:
Pluto surface is strange.
As the robotic
New Horizons
barrels toward its closest approach to Pluto and its moons tomorrow,
images already coming back show Pluto's surface to be
curiouser and curiouser.
The
featured image, taken two days ago, shows the side of Pluto that always faces Pluto's largest moon
Charon.
Particularly noteworthy is the
dark belt near the bottom
that circles Pluto's equator.
It is currently unclear whether regions in this dark belt are
mountainous or flat, why boundaries are so sharply defined, and why the
light regions seem to be nearly evenly spaced.
As
New Horizons
will be flying past the other side of Pluto, this should be the best
image of this distant landscape that humanity sees for a long time.
Assuming the robotic spacecraft operates as hoped, images taken of the
other side of
Pluto, taken near closest approach, will be about 300 times more detailed.
Geology on Pluto
Image Credit:
NASA,
Johns Hopkins Univ./APL,
Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation:
Pluto is coming into focus.
As the robotic
New Horizons spacecraft bears down on this unexplored world of the distant
Solar System,
new features on its surface are becoming evident.
In the
displayed image taken last Thursday and released yesterday, an unusual
polygonal structure roughly 200 kilometers wide is visible on the left,
while just below it relatively
complex terrain runs diagonally across the dwarf planet.
New Horizon's
images and data on these structures will likely be studied for years to
come in an effort to better understand the geologic history of
Pluto and our Solar System.
After suffering a
troublesome glitch last week,
New Horizons will make its historic
flyby of
Pluto and its moons on Tuesday.
Messier 43
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Yuri Beletsky
(Carnegie
Las Campanas Obs.),
Igor Chilingarian
(Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
Explanation:
Often imaged
but rarely mentioned,
Messier 43
is a large star forming region in its own right.
It's just part of the star forming complex of gas and dust that
includes the larger, more famous neighboring Messier 42,
the Great Orion Nebula.
In fact,
the Great Orion Nebula itself lies off the lower edge of
this scene.
The close-up of Messier 43 was made while testing the
capabilities of a near-infrared instrument with one of the twin
6.5 meter Magellan telescopes
at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes.
The composite image shifts the otherwise invisible infrared wavelengths
to blue, green, and red colors.
Peering into
caverns of interstellar dust hidden from
visible light, the near-infrared view can also be used
to study cool,
brown dwarf stars in the complex region.
Along with its
celebrity neighbor, Messier 43 lies about
1,500 light-years away, at the edge of Orion's giant molecular cloud.
At that distance, this field of view spans about 5 light-years.
5 Million Miles from Pluto
Image Credit:
NASA,
Johns Hopkins Univ./APL,
Southwest Research Inst.
Explanation:
An image snapped
on July 7 by the New Horizons spacecraft
while just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers)
from Pluto is combined with
color data
in this most detailed view yet of the Solar System's most famous world
about to be explored.
The region imaged includes the tip of an elongated dark area
along Pluto's equator already
dubbed "the whale".
A bright heart-shaped region on the right is about 1,200 miles (2,000)
kilometers across, possibly covered with a frost of
frozen methane, nitrogen, and/or carbon monoxide.
The view is centered near the area that will be seen during New Horizons
much anticipated
July 14 closest approach to
a distance of about 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers).
In the Company of Dione
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Explanation:
That is not our Moon.
It's
Dione,
and it’s a moon of Saturn.
The robotic
Cassini spacecraft
took the
featured image during a flyby of Saturn's cratered Moon last month.
Perhaps what makes
this image so interesting, though, is the background.
First, the large orb looming behind
Dione is Saturn itself,
faintly lit by sunlight first reflected from the rings.
Next, the thin lines running diagonally across the image are the
rings of Saturn themselves.
The millions of icy rocks that
compose Saturn's spectacular rings all orbit Saturn in the same
plane, and so appear surprisingly thin when seen nearly edge-on.
Front and center,
Dione appears in
crescent phase, partially lit by the Sun that is off to the lower left.
A
careful inspection of the ring plane should also locate the moon
Enceladus on the upper right.
Zeta Oph: Runaway Star
Image Credit:
NASA,
JPL-Caltech,
Spitzer
Space Telescope
Explanation:
Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas,
runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi
produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this
stunning infrared portrait.
In the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more
massive than the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving
toward the left at 24 kilometers per
second.
Its strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty
interstellar
material and shaping the curved shock front.
Around it are clouds of
relatively undisturbed material.
What set this star in motion?
Zeta Oph was likely once a member of a
binary star system, its
companion star was more massive and hence
shorter lived.
When the companion
exploded
as a supernova catastrophically losing mass,
Zeta Oph was flung out of the system.
About 460 light-years away,
Zeta Oph is 65,000 times more
luminous than the Sun and would be one of the brighter stars
in the sky if it weren't surrounded by obscuring dust.
The image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12
light-years
at the estimated distance of
Zeta
Ophiuchi.
Venus and Jupiter are Close
Composite Image Credit &
Copyright:
Wang, Letian
Explanation:
On June 30, Venus and Jupiter were close in western skies at dusk.
Near the culmination of this year's
gorgeous conjunction,
the two bright evening planets are captured in the same telescopic
field of view in this image taken after sunset from Bejing, China.
As the two bright planets set
together in the west,
a nearly Full Moon rose above the horizon to the south and east.
Imaged that night with the same telescope and camera,
the rising Moon from the opposite part of the sky is compared
with the planetary conjunction
for scale in the
digitally composited image.
The full lunar disk covers an angle of about 1/2 degree on the sky.
Visible as well in binoculars and small telescopes are
Venus' crescent and Jupiter's four Galilean moons.
Of course, Venus and Jupiter
are still close.
An Unusual Mountain on Asteroid Ceres
Image Credit:
NASA,
JPL-Caltech,
UCLA,
MPS/DLR/IDA
Explanation:
What created this large mountain on asteroid Ceres?
No one is yet sure.
As if in anticipation of today being
Asteroid
Day on Earth, the robotic spacecraft
Dawn in orbit around Ceres took the best yet image of an unusually tall mountain on the Asteroid Belt's largest asteroid.
Visible at the top of the
featured image, the exceptional mountain rises about
five kilometers up from an area that otherwise appears pretty level.
The
image was taken about two weeks ago from about 4,400 kilometers away.
Although
origin hypotheses for the mountain include volcanism, impacts, and plate tectonics, clear evidence backing any of these is currently lacking.
Also visible
across Ceres' surface are some enigmatic light areas:
bright spots whose origin and composition that also
remain an
active topic of investigation.
Even though Dawn is expected to continue to orbit Ceres, officially dubbed a
dwarf planet, for millions of years, the
hydrazine fuel used to point
Dawn's communications
antenna toward Earth is expected to run out sometime next year.
Venus and Jupiter are Far
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Adam Tomaszewski
Explanation:
On June 30 Venus and Jupiter were actually far apart, but both
appeared close in western skies at dusk.
Near the culmination of this year's
gorgeous conjunction,
the two bright evening planets are captured in the same telescopic
field of view in this sharp digital
stack of images
taken after sunset from PoznaĆ in west-central Poland.
In fact, banded gas giant Jupiter was about 910 million kilometers
from Poland.
That's over 11 times farther than crescent Venus, only 78 million
kilometers distant at the time.
But since the diameter of giant planet Jupiter is over 11 times
larger than Venus both planets show about the same
angular size.
Of course, 16th century Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
would also have enjoyed the simultaneous telescopic view
including Jupiter's four Galilean moons and a crescent Venus.
Observations of Jupiter's moons and Venus' crescent phase
were evidence for
the
Copernican or heliocentric model of the solar system.
Aurora Australis
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Robert Schwarz
(South Pole Station)
Explanation:
Not fireworks, these intense shimmering lights
still danced
across Earth's night skies late last month,
seen here
above
the planet's geographic south pole.
The stunning
auroral
displays were triggered as
a coronal mass ejection blasted from the Sun days earlier
impacted the magnetosphere, beginning a
widespread geomagnetic storm.
The six fisheye panels
were recorded with digital camera and battery
in a heated box to guard against -90 degree F
ambient temperatures of the
long winter night.
Around the horizon are south pole
astronomical observatories,
while beyond the Aurora Australis stretch the stars
of the southern Milky Way.
Source -
NASA