{"id":8506,"date":"2014-08-07T17:04:28","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T21:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8506"},"modified":"2014-08-07T17:04:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T21:04:46","slug":"new-horizons-probe-sees-charon-orbiting-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8506","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons probe sees Charon orbiting Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0\u00a0New Horizons<\/a>\u00a0spacecraft is steadily closing in on Pluto as it heads for a fly-by next July. The spacecraft can now distinguish Pluto from its moon Charon with its long range camera.<\/p>\n

New Horizons Spies Charon Orbiting Pluto<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PR_E12_proper_nosat_3fps\"<\/a>Pluto and Charon dance in this sequence of images taken<\/em>
\nover 6 days. (Large image<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Like explorers of old peering through a shipboard telescope for a faint glimpse of their destination, NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft is taking a distant look at the Pluto system \u2013 in preparation for its historic encounter with the planet and its moons next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilmed\u201d with New Horizons\u2019 best onboard telescope \u2013 the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) \u2013 this movie covers Pluto and almost one full rotation of its largest moon, Charon. The 12 images that make up the movie were taken July 19-24, from a distance ranging from about 267 million to 262 million miles (429 million to 422 million kilometers). Charon is orbiting approximately 11,200 miles (about 18,000 kilometers) above Pluto\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

New Horizons snapped this image sequence as part of the mission\u2019s first optical navigation campaign. The mission team uses these \u201cop nav\u201d images \u2013 which focus on Pluto\u2019s position against a backdrop of stars \u2013 to fine-tune the distance that New Horizons will fly past Pluto and its moons. New Horizons is aiming for a precise close-approach point near Pluto in July 2015, so these and images to come \u2013 which help navigators and mission designers to get a better fix on Pluto\u2019s position \u2013 are critical to planning the encounter operations.<\/p>\n

Pluto\u2019s four smaller satellites (Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos) are too faint to be seen in these distant images, but will begin to appear in images taken next year as the spacecraft speeds closer to its target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe image sequence showing Charon revolving around Pluto set a record for close range imaging of Pluto\u2014they were taken from 10 times closer to the planet than the Earth is,\u201d says New Horizons mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. \u201cBut we\u2019ll smash that record again and again, starting in January, as approach operations begin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really excited to see our target and its biggest satellite in motion from our own perch,\u201d he adds, \u201cless than a year from the historic encounter ahead!\u201d<\/p>\n

As August begins, New Horizons is near the end of its final pre-Pluto annual systems checkout and instrument calibration before Pluto arrival. The New Horizons mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, will put the spacecraft back into hibernation on August 29 \u2013 just four days after New Horizons crosses the orbit of Neptune on August 25.<\/p>\n

That final \u201crest\u201d lasts only until December 6, when New Horizons will stay wake for two years of Pluto encounter preparations, flyby operations, and data downlinks. Distant-encounter operations begin January 4, 2015.<\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

See also\u00a0New Horizons spies Pluto and Charon, July 2014 –\u00a0The Planetary Society<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0spacecraft is steadily closing in on Pluto as it heads for a fly-by next July. The spacecraft can now distinguish Pluto from its moon Charon with its long range camera. New Horizons Spies Charon Orbiting Pluto Pluto and Charon dance in this sequence of images taken over 6 days. (Large image) Like explorers of … Continue reading New Horizons probe sees Charon orbiting Pluto<\/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":[36,97,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-multiple-media","category-pluto","category-space-science"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2dc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10809,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10809","url_meta":{"origin":8506,"position":0},"title":"First color animated images of Pluto and its moon Charon","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0spacecraft approaching Pluto sends some color images of Pluto and its moon Charon: First Color Animated Images Show Pluto and its Moon Charon The first color movies from NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission show Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, and the complex orbital dance of the two bodies, known\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pluto and beyond"","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"loop_final[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/loop_final1.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10372,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10372","url_meta":{"origin":8506,"position":1},"title":"Videos: New Horizons Pluto mission update + Color image of Pluto and moon Charon","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0spacecraft moves ever closer to Pluto for its fly-by in July. Today there were two panel discussions about the mission. The first panel focused on the science: https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ej3HUvLw_sA Here's the second panel, which focuses on the spacecraft: https:\/\/youtu.be\/OOx7Oi7go3E ----- Here's a NASA's New Horizons Nears Historic Encounter with Pluto\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pluto and beyond"","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"20150414_First_Color_Image_Ralph[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/20150414_First_Color_Image_Ralph1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10983,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10983","url_meta":{"origin":8506,"position":2},"title":"New Horizons: False colors bring out features in Pluto & Charon","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The colors are not authentic but the images are still interesting and pretty: Pluto and Charon Shine in False Color New Horizons Composition Team Uses July 13 Data to Study Pluto\u2019s Puzzling Surface New Horizons has obtained impressive new images of Pluto and its large moon Charon that highlight their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pluto and beyond"","block_context":{"text":"Pluto and beyond","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=97"},"img":{"alt_text":"nh-071315_falsecolorcomposite[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/nh-071315_falsecolorcomposite1-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9847,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9847","url_meta":{"origin":8506,"position":3},"title":"New Horizons returns new images of Pluto","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The New Horizons spacecraft moves ever closer to Pluto and to its fly-by this summer. 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The New Horizons mission, the SETI Institute and the\u00a0International Astronomical Union\u00a0(IAU) have opened a public participation program in which you offer an addition to\u00a0a list of\u00a0names that will be used for features on Pluto and its moon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Contests and Games"","block_context":{"text":"Contests and Games","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/2vAXD_De6Kc\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8509,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8506\/revisions\/8509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}