{"id":10864,"date":"2015-07-01T11:44:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10864"},"modified":"2015-07-01T11:44:05","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T15:44:05","slug":"pluto-fly-by-new-images-methane-detection-course-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10864","title":{"rendered":"Pluto Fly-by: New images, methane detection, & course correction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yet more news and pictures from\u00a0New Horizons<\/a>:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

New Horizons Update: Methane Detected;
\nNew Images of Pluto and Charon<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, there is methane on Pluto, and, no, it doesn\u2019t come from cows. The infrared spectrometer on NASA\u2019s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has detected frozen methane on Pluto\u2019s surface; Earth-based astronomers first observed the chemical compound on Pluto in 1976.<\/p>\n

\"nh-6-30-15_pluto_movie_nasa_jhuapl_swri[1]\"<\/a>\u00a0The latest New Horizon image sequence of Pluto and its moon Charon.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe already knew there was methane on Pluto, but these are our first detections,\u201d said Will Grundy, the New Horizons Surface Composition team leader with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. \u201cSoon we will know if there are differences in the presence of methane ice from one part of Pluto to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Methane (chemical formula CH4)<\/sub> is an odorless, colorless gas that is present underground and in the atmosphere on Earth. On Pluto, methane may be primordial, inherited from the solar nebula from which the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. Methane was originally detected on Pluto\u2019s surface by a team of ground-based astronomers led by New Horizons team member Dale Cruikshank, of NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California.<\/p>\n

Come Fly with New Horizons on its Approach to Pluto<\/strong><\/p>\n

Images from New Horizons show the view from aboard the spacecraft closes in on the Pluto system for a July 14 flyby.<\/p>\n

This time-lapse approach movie was made from images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera aboard New Horizons spacecraft taken between May 28 and June 25, 2015. During that time the spacecraft distance to Pluto decreased almost threefold, from about 35 million miles to 14 million miles (56 million kilometers to 22 million kilometers). The images show Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, growing in apparent size as New Horizons closes in. As it rotates, Pluto displays a strongly contrasting surface dominated by a bright northern hemisphere, with a discontinuous band of darker material running along the equator. Charon has a dark polar region, and there are indications of brightness variations at lower latitudes.<\/p>\n