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NASA spacecraft spots possible ice cap on Pluto | SPACE | World | News | Toronto
NASA spacecraft spots possible ice cap on Pluto
Irene Klotz, REUTERS
First posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 09:42 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 09:51 PM EDT
A picture of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, is seen in this NASA image taken April 9, 2015. It is the first color image ever made of the Pluto system by a spacecraft on approach, according to NASA. The image was made from a distance of about 71 million miles (115 million kilometers) roughly the distance from the Sun to Venus. At this distance, neither Pluto nor Charon is well resolved by the color imager, but their distinctly different appearances can be seen. As New Horizons approaches its flyby of Pluto on July 14, it will deliver color images that eventually show surface features as small as a few miles across. REUTERS/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Handout
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With (97 million km left to go before its July 14, 2015, encounter, New Horizons already has been able to make out surprising light and dark patches on the surface of Pluto, which is currently more than 32 times farther away from Earth than the sun.
"We are starting to see intriguing features, such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole," NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said in a statement, in reference to what scientists believe could be a polar ice cap.
In the images, Pluto appears as a small, highly pixelated blob, but already scientists can see there is something very odd about its surface.
Our best pics of #Pluto yet - and as @NASANewHorizons gets closer, the images only get better! Request Rejected pic.twitter.com/OwEzlaqyeV
— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) April 29, 2015
"It's rare to see any planet in the solar system, at this low resolution, displaying such strong surface markings. If you had similar images of Mercury, or images of even Mars, you would not see the same kinds of big surface units going by as you do here on Pluto. That's very promising," New Horizons lead scientist Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., told reporters during a conference call.
Because Pluto is tipped onto its side, similar to Uranus, New Horizons has a steady gaze on one of its polar regions, which appears in the images to be consistently brighter than other areas. Scientists suspect the pole is covered by a highly reflective cap of nitrogen ice.
New Horizons has been traveling toward Pluto for 9.5 years. In the interim, Pluto, which was once considered the ninth and outermost planet in the solar system, was demoted to "dwarf planet" status after scientists discovered other similar icy bodies in solar system's back yard.
As scientists prepare for their first close-up views of Pluto, another mission at the innermost planet is coming to an end.
Out of fuel after four years in orbit, NASA's Messenger spacecraft is expected to make a crash landing into Mercury on Thursday.
NASA spacecraft spots possible ice cap on Pluto
Irene Klotz, REUTERS
First posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 09:42 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 09:51 PM EDT
A picture of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, is seen in this NASA image taken April 9, 2015. It is the first color image ever made of the Pluto system by a spacecraft on approach, according to NASA. The image was made from a distance of about 71 million miles (115 million kilometers) roughly the distance from the Sun to Venus. At this distance, neither Pluto nor Charon is well resolved by the color imager, but their distinctly different appearances can be seen. As New Horizons approaches its flyby of Pluto on July 14, it will deliver color images that eventually show surface features as small as a few miles across. REUTERS/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Handout
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With (97 million km left to go before its July 14, 2015, encounter, New Horizons already has been able to make out surprising light and dark patches on the surface of Pluto, which is currently more than 32 times farther away from Earth than the sun.
"We are starting to see intriguing features, such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole," NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said in a statement, in reference to what scientists believe could be a polar ice cap.
In the images, Pluto appears as a small, highly pixelated blob, but already scientists can see there is something very odd about its surface.
Our best pics of #Pluto yet - and as @NASANewHorizons gets closer, the images only get better! Request Rejected pic.twitter.com/OwEzlaqyeV
— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) April 29, 2015
"It's rare to see any planet in the solar system, at this low resolution, displaying such strong surface markings. If you had similar images of Mercury, or images of even Mars, you would not see the same kinds of big surface units going by as you do here on Pluto. That's very promising," New Horizons lead scientist Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., told reporters during a conference call.
Because Pluto is tipped onto its side, similar to Uranus, New Horizons has a steady gaze on one of its polar regions, which appears in the images to be consistently brighter than other areas. Scientists suspect the pole is covered by a highly reflective cap of nitrogen ice.
New Horizons has been traveling toward Pluto for 9.5 years. In the interim, Pluto, which was once considered the ninth and outermost planet in the solar system, was demoted to "dwarf planet" status after scientists discovered other similar icy bodies in solar system's back yard.
As scientists prepare for their first close-up views of Pluto, another mission at the innermost planet is coming to an end.
Out of fuel after four years in orbit, NASA's Messenger spacecraft is expected to make a crash landing into Mercury on Thursday.
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