{"id":9970,"date":"2015-02-22T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9970"},"modified":"2015-02-22T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2015-02-22T20:30:10","slug":"new-horizons-spots-small-moons-circling-pluto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9970","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons spots small moons circling Pluto"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0New Horizons<\/a>\u00a0probe is closing in on the Pluto system, which it will fly by in July. the latest pictures from the spacecraft are processed to enhanced the details Pluto’s moons :<\/p>\n

85 Years after Pluto\u2019s Discovery,
\nNew Horizons Spots Small Moons Orbiting Pluto<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Exactly 85 years after Clyde Tombaugh\u2019s historic discovery of Pluto, the NASA spacecraft set to encounter the icy planet this summer is providing its first views of the small moons orbiting Pluto.<\/p>\n

The moons Nix and Hydra are visible in a series of images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft from Jan. 27-Feb. 8, at distances ranging from about 125 million to 115 million miles (201 million to 186 million kilometers). The long-exposure images offer New Horizons\u2019 best view yet of these two small moons circling Pluto, which Tombaugh discovered at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Feb. 18, 1930.<\/p>\n

\"LORRI_4x4_Presser_02[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Tombaugh\u2019s discovery of Pluto was far ahead its time, heralding the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and a new class of planet,\u201d says Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. \u201cThe New Horizons team salutes his historic accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assembled into a seven-frame movie, the new images provide the spacecraft\u2019s first extended look at Hydra (identified by a yellow diamond) and its first-ever view of Nix (orange diamond). The right-hand image set has been specially processed to make the small moons easier to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s thrilling to watch the details of the Pluto system emerge as we close the distance to the spacecraft\u2019s July 14 encounter,\u201d says New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also from Southwest Research Institute. \u201cThis first good view of Nix and Hydra marks another major milestone, and a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of Pluto\u2019s discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are the first of a series of long-exposure images that will continue through early March, with the purpose of refining the team\u2019s knowledge of the moons\u2019 orbits. Each frame is a combination of five 10-second images, taken with New Horizons\u2019 Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) using a special mode that combines pixels to increase sensitivity at the expense of resolution. At left, Nix and Hydra are just visible against the glare of Pluto and its large moon Charon, and the dense field of background stars. The bright and dark streak extending to the right of Pluto is an artifact of the camera electronics, resulting from the overexposure of Pluto and Charon. As can be seen in the movie, the spacecraft and camera were rotated in some of the images to change the direction of this streak, in order to prevent it from obscuring the two moons.<\/p>\n

The right-hand images have been processed to remove most of Pluto and Charon\u2019s glare, and most of the background stars. The processing leaves blotchy and streaky artifacts in the images, as well as a few other residual bright spots that are not real features, but makes Nix and Hydra much easier to see. Celestial north is inclined 28 degrees clockwise from the \u201cup\u201d direction in these images.<\/p>\n

Nix and Hydra were discovered by New Horizons team members in Hubble Space Telescope images taken in 2005. Hydra, Pluto\u2019s outermost known moon, orbits Pluto every 38 days at a distance of approximately 40,200 miles (64,700 kilometers), while Nix orbits every 25 days at a distance of 30,260 miles (48,700 kilometers). Each moon is probably between 25-95 miles (approximately 40- 150 kilometers) in diameter, but scientists won\u2019t know their sizes more precisely until New Horizons obtains close-up pictures of both of them in July. Pluto\u2019s two other small moons, Styx and Kerberos, are still smaller and too faint to be seen by New Horizons at its current range to Pluto; they will become visible in the months to come.<\/p>\n

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory manages the New Horizons mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), headquartered in San Antonio, is the principal investigator and leads the mission. SwRI leads the science team, payload operations, and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Image credits: NASA\/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory\/Southwest Research Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Nix-Hydra%202-8-15[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0probe is closing in on the Pluto system, which it will fly by in July. the latest pictures from the spacecraft are processed to enhanced the details Pluto’s moons : 85 Years after Pluto\u2019s Discovery, New Horizons Spots Small Moons Orbiting Pluto Exactly 85 years after Clyde Tombaugh\u2019s historic discovery of Pluto, the NASA … Continue reading New Horizons spots small moons circling 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_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[97,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9970","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-2AO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8506,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8506","url_meta":{"origin":9970,"position":0},"title":"New Horizons probe sees Charon orbiting Pluto","author":"TopSpacer","date":"August 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0spacecraft is steadily closing in on Pluto as it heads for a fly-by next July. 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