{"id":10925,"date":"2015-07-09T01:09:24","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T05:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10925"},"modified":"2015-07-09T01:09:24","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T05:09:24","slug":"new-horizons-a-better-view-of-pluto-studying-plutos-pickup-ions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10925","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons: A better view of Pluto + Studying Pluto’s pickup ions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The images of Pluto from the\u00a0New Horizons<\/a>\u00a0probe get better day by day. Here is the latest:<\/p>\n

A \u2018Heart\u2019 from Pluto as Flyby Begins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

After a more than nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to Pluto, it\u2019s showtime for NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft, as the flyby sequence of science observations is officially underway.<\/p>\n

\"HEART%20-%207-8-15_Pluto_color_new_NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the early morning hours of July 8, mission scientists received this new view of Pluto\u2014the most detailed yet returned by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard New Horizons. The image was taken on July 7, when the spacecraft was just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) from Pluto, and is the first to be received since the July 4 anomaly that sent the spacecraft into safe mode.<\/p>\n

This view is centered roughly on the area that will be seen close-up during New Horizons\u2019 July 14 closest approach. This side of Pluto is dominated by three broad regions of varying brightness. Most prominent are an elongated dark feature at the equator, informally known as \u201cthe whale,\u201d and a large heart-shaped bright area measuring some 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) across on the right. Above those features is a polar region that is intermediate in brightness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next time we see this part of Pluto at closest approach, a portion of this region will be imaged at about 500 times better resolution than we see today,\u201d said Jeff Moore, Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team leader of NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center. \u201cIt will be incredible!\u201d<\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

A scientist in the New Horizons mission,\u00a0Matt Hill, writes about what\u00a0plasma science can tell us about Pluto\u00a0:\u00a0Science Shorts: A space physicist\u2019s view of Pluto – New Horizons<\/a>\u00a0–<\/p>\n

Yes, but why would a space physicist study Pluto?<\/em><\/p>\n

After all, at Pluto we don\u2019t have much to go on.\u00a0We don\u2019t expect a significant magnetic field, since we don\u2019t believe there is a molten metal core, but mounting evidence demonstrates that the atmosphere of Pluto is large<\/a> (if tenuous by Earthly standards) and releasing a significant, steady rate of material.\u00a0 These neutrally charged, Plutonian gas particles from its atmosphere are expected to interact with the impinging, highly charged solar wind and solar photons resulting in freshly charged \u201cpickup ions\u201d that, depending on their kinetic energy, are detectable by the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation (PEPSSI<\/a>) time-of-flight mass spectrometer on board New Horizons.<\/em><\/p>\n

These pickup ions can help tell us about the rate at which Pluto loses its atmosphere, but also Pluto\u2019s production of these pickup ions provides us with the opportunity to study the pickup ions themselves at the moment of their creation.\u00a0The physics of how they are accelerated and transported is not well understood (although there are many theories). So when New Horizons races through Pluto\u2019s atmosphere and PEPSSI detects the ions there, I will be looking out for pickup ions and hoping to learn how the pickup ions get their energy and how they exit the Pluto system.\u00a0Only a little more patience is needed\u2014it all happens next month!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The images of Pluto from the\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0probe get better day by day. Here is the latest: A \u2018Heart\u2019 from Pluto as Flyby Begins After a more than nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to Pluto, it\u2019s showtime for NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft, as the flyby sequence of science observations is officially underway. In the early morning hours of … Continue reading New Horizons: A better view of Pluto + Studying Pluto’s pickup ions<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pluto","category-space-science","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2Qd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10928,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10928","url_meta":{"origin":10925,"position":0},"title":"New Horizons: July 8th daily briefing video + Flyby schedule + Pluto in Google Earth","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the latest update on the New Horizons mission: https:\/\/youtu.be\/H3zbyzuFA6I --- Here are timelines of events from now till\u00a0July 14th when the New Horizons probe passes by Pluto and several\u00a0days after: Updated Television Coverage, Media Activities for Pluto Flyby -\u00a0NASA What to expect when you're expecting a flyby: Planning your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pluto and beyond"","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/H3zbyzuFA6I\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10956,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10956","url_meta":{"origin":10925,"position":1},"title":"New Horizons: Misc. resources, websites, etc.","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The next few days will be extremely busy and exciting for the New Horizons\u00a0team. 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NASA's New Horizons \u2018Phones Home\u2019 Safe after Pluto Flyby The call everyone was waiting for is in. NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft phoned home just before 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pluto and beyond"","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"New Horizons Flight Controllers celebrate after they received confirmation from the spacecraft that it had successfully completed the flyby of Pluto, Tuesday, July 14, 2015 in the Mission Operations Center (MOC) of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland. 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