New Horizons flyby of Pluto

The Chronicler · **Reply #20 on:** July 19, 2015, 09:00:20 PM

Has anyone seen the close-up pictures of Pluto that have been released so far? They show interesting features such as mountains as tall as the Rockies that are made out of water ice. There's one of Charon that includes a feature that some have call a "mountain with a moat". And there's also a pair of (albeit blurry) pictures of two of Pluto's smaller moons, Nix and Hydra, showing them to be rather lumpy in shape (like the moons of Mars) and likely made out of water ice, due to how bright they are.

bestariana1girl · **Reply #21 on:** July 22, 2015, 09:07:33 PM

I have! They are amazing! I can't believe Pluto isn't as icy as they thought, I'm excited to see what else is out there too!

The Chronicler · **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2015, 10:00:15 PM

NASA released a new batch of images last Friday (and we supposedly won't get any more new ones until September). Among these are clearer (but still blurry) images of the tiny moons Nix and Hydra; the northern edge of that heart-shaped region, showing that it's likely a large glacier made out of nitrogen ice that seems to be flowing over older cratered terrain; and a view of the night side of Pluto showing sunlight passing through its atmosphere all around it.

The Chronicler · **Reply #23 on:** September 10, 2015, 08:05:07 PM

For the first time in over a month, new images from the flyby have just been released. They are not yet in color, but they show a much higher level of detail of Pluto's surface than the earlier images, revealing the older heavily-cratered dark terrain and the water ice mountains along the edge of the smooth heart-shaped plain.

As New Horizons continues to transmit data ever so slowly, expect to see more new images on a regular basis.

Ducky123 · **Reply #24 on:** September 12, 2015, 10:58:14 AM

Here's
Here's a pretty good article with some of the most recent pictures sent back to earth

The Chronicler · **Reply #25 on:** October 03, 2015, 08:12:04 PM

Some of the more recently released images show both Pluto and Charon in full color, including close-up high resolution images of Pluto's surface, and that Charon's dark polar region is actually reddish in color, indicating that the material in that region probably came from Pluto.

The Chronicler · **Reply #26 on:** October 10, 2015, 08:30:05 PM

Quite some interesting new discoveries coming from some of the latest images. For example, the color photo of the hazy atmosphere around Pluto show's that it's actually blue. Also, Pluto's tiniest moon, Styx, is only a few miles across, about as small as Mars's moons.

Kor · **Reply #27 on:** October 11, 2015, 10:16:12 AM

I read that supposedly Pluto has frozen water ice and it's red in color for some reason. Think I read that. Not fully awake so may have misread it.

The Chronicler · **Reply #28 on:** October 28, 2015, 06:35:02 PM

A blurry image of the last of Pluto's moons, Kerboros, has been released, and it's quite a surprise. Due to the gravitational effects it's had on the system, scientists had expected that moon to be rather large, with its dimness probably due to a very dark surface. However, the image shows it's very tiny (the smallest one of all) and just as bright as all the others. This was quite an unexpected discovery, and clearly some work needs to be done to figure out why there's such a discrepancy between the gravitational effects and the actual image.

The Chronicler · **Reply #29 on:** December 05, 2015, 07:32:32 PM

The most recently released images show the surface of Pluto at the highest resolution we will ever see out of this flyby mission.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/4/9851162/...high-resolution

The Chronicler · **Reply #30 on:** December 10, 2015, 07:15:26 PM

Now there's a color version of last week's high-resolution image.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/10/9888348...-enhanced-color

Ducky123 · **Reply #31 on:** December 13, 2015, 10:52:26 AM

Amazing, isn't it?