NASA releases video of New Horizons Flyover of Pluto and Charon

Is this cool or what?  NASA scientists have created videos of Pluto and its moon Charon from the data received from the New Horizons spacecraft from its flyby two years ago.

Check these out!

New Horizons launched toward Pluto 2006

The New Horizons spacecraft, launched January 19, 2006, performed the first flyby of Pluto, exceeding everyone's expectations.  New Horizons reached Pluto (now 'dwarf planet') in July 2015 and sent back gigabytes of data which NASA scientists will be studying for years.

New Horizons took pictures of Pluto's surface as well as its moons, giving us a much better understanding of Charon.

Buoyed on the success of the mission, the New Horizons team requested and has been granted an extension.  New Horizons is headed toward 2014 MU69, a large body in the Kuiper Belt, arriving in 2019.  It will study other trans-Neptunian objects as well.

New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto a year ago

One year ago today, the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto and its moon Charon.  Since then, NASA scientists have made numerous discoveries about the now-dwarf planet, such as craters, mountains and seas of solid nitrogen.

Last month, scientists discovered super-grand canyon on Charon that makes Arizona's Grand Canyon look like a scratch!







http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-super-grand-canyon-on-pluto-s-moon-charon

Hydra, Pluto's Ice Moon

NASA reports that it has received the first compositional data on Pluto's four small moons from the New Horizons spacecraft.  They outermost satellite, Hydra, is covered mostly in unspoiled water ice.  Pluto's largest moon Charon is also covered mainly in water ice, but spectral analysis suggests that ice particles on Hydra are larger. NASA has described Hydra, only 31 miles long, as resembling the state of Michigan.  I suppose if you squint real hard...  This image was taken at a distance of 150,000 miles but closer pictures might not be forthcoming.  The New Horizons team is looking forward to obtaining data about Pluto's other moons.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-icy-moon-hydra

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/new-horizons-captures-two-of-plutos-smaller-moons

Charon just got cooler!

 

Pluto’s largest moon Charon has almost eclipsed its mother planet on being the hot spot in our solar system.  NASA released pictures today of Charon, revealing a ‘colorful and violent’ past.  One item of excitement is a reddish region near the north polar region, informally named Mordor Macula.

The New Horizons spacecraft captured images of mountains, canyons, landslides and more.  Scientists have discovered a huge canyon that stretches more than 1000 miles, across Charon’s entire face and it probably extends to the other side.  It is four times longer than the Grand Canyon and twice as deep in some places.

The smoothness of the moon south of the canyon is evidence of wide-scale resurfacing, possibly due to ‘cryovolcanism’, a cold volcanic activity.  Check out the video below!

New Horizons is still transmitting data and will continue for the next year.