{"id":11228,"date":"2015-08-18T14:12:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T18:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11228"},"modified":"2015-08-18T14:12:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T18:12:36","slug":"new-horizons-fly-by-video-the-source-of-plutos-nitrogen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11228","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons: Fly-by video + The source of Pluto&#8217;s nitrogen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a video showing the view of Pluto as the <a href=\"http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Horizon<\/a>\u00a0probe flew past it:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New Horizons Pluto flyby\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/136223988?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p>I missed this posting from New Horizons last week:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/News-Center\/News-Article.php?page=20150812\" target=\"_d\">Scientists Study Nitrogen Provision for Pluto\u2019s Atmosphere<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The latest data from NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft reveal diverse features on Pluto\u2019s surface and an atmosphere dominated by nitrogen gas. However, Pluto\u2019s small mass allows hundreds of tons of atmospheric nitrogen to escape into space each hour.<\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_11229\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11229\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/News-Center\/news\/pictures\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"11229\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=11229\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md[1]\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md1.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-11229\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md1.jpg\" alt=\"2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md[1]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor-md1-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11229\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mission scientists are studying New Horizons data to discover what\u2019s pumping up the nitrogen in Pluto\u2019s atmosphere, even as it escapes into interplanetary space. This enhanced color image \u2013 created from four images from New Horizons\u2019 Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) combined with color data from the spacecraft\u2019s Ralph instrument \u2013 helps scientists detect differences in the composition and texture of Pluto\u2019s surface. The data hint that Pluto may still be geologically active, a theory that could explain how Pluto\u2019s escaping atmosphere remains flush with nitrogen. Image Credit: NASA\/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory\/Southwest Research Institute. (<a href=\"http:\/\/pluto.jhuapl.edu\/News-Center\/news\/pictures\/2015-08-12-15-PlutoEnhancedColor.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Larger image<\/a>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>So where does all this nitrogen come from? Kelsi Singer, a postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute, and her mentor Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator and SwRI associate vice president, outlined likely sources in a paper titled, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/2041-8205\/808\/2\/L50\/\" target=\"_blank\">On the Provenance of Pluto\u2019s Nitrogen<\/a>.\u201d The <em>Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em> accepted the paper for publication on July 15, just a day after the spacecraft\u2019s closest encounter with the icy dwarf planet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore nitrogen has to come from somewhere to resupply both the nitrogen ice that is moving around Pluto\u2019s surface in seasonal cycles, and the nitrogen that is escaping off the top of the atmosphere as the result of heating by ultraviolet light from the Sun,\u201d said Singer.<\/p>\n<p>Singer and Stern looked at a number of different ways that nitrogen might be resupplied. They wondered if comets could deliver enough nitrogen to Pluto\u2019s surface to resupply what is escaping its atmosphere. They also looked at whether craters made by the comets hitting the surface could excavate enough nitrogen \u2013 but that would require a very deep layer of nitrogen ice at the surface, which is not proven. The team also studied whether craters could expose more surface area, by punching through surface deposits that would likely be built up over time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found that all of these effects, which are the major ones from cratering, do not seem to supply enough nitrogen to supply the escaping atmosphere over time,\u201d continued Singer. \u201cWhile it\u2019s possible that the escape rate was not as high in the past as it is now, we think geologic activity is helping out by bringing nitrogen up from Pluto\u2019s interior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And while the data weren\u2019t in before this paper was written, the newest images of Pluto show land forms that suggest heat is rising beneath the surface, with troughs of dark matter either collecting, or bubbling up, between flat segments of crust, which could be related.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur pre-flyby prediction, made when we submitted the paper, is that it\u2019s most likely that Pluto is actively resupplying nitrogen from its interior to its surface, possibly meaning the presence of ongoing geysers or cryovolcanism,\u201d said Stern. \u201cAs data from New Horizons comes in, we will be very interested to see if this proves true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Horizons is part of NASA\u2019s New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate. SwRI leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a video showing the view of Pluto as the New Horizon\u00a0probe flew past it: &#8212;- I missed this posting from New Horizons last week: Scientists Study Nitrogen Provision for Pluto\u2019s Atmosphere The latest data from NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft reveal diverse features on Pluto\u2019s surface and an atmosphere dominated by nitrogen gas. However, Pluto\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11228\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Horizons: Fly-by video + The source of Pluto&#8217;s nitrogen<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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-11228","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-2V6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11008,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11008","url_meta":{"origin":11228,"position":0},"title":"New Horizons: Video of news conference + A frozen heart of CO + Pluto&#8217;s atmosphere &#038; 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