Precious pictures and data’s are received
from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during
its flyby on July 14, 2015.
and interacts with the methane molecules, it
actually breaks them apart and creates a
reddish gunk called tholin.
Moons in the solar system keep one face
pointed toward their planet. Certainly it is
not the case with the small moons of Pluto,
which behave like spinning tops.
The heart shaped crater on Pluto’s surface
was a much awaited picture.
Pluto is shown at center with, in order, from
smaller to wider orbit: Charon, Styx, Nix,
Kerberos, and Hydra.
The images include a wide variety of
cratered, mountainous (estimated 3,300
mtrs. high) glacial terrains – giving scientists
and the public alike a super-high resolution
view of Pluto’s complexity.
Like Mars, we’ve got a new red planet! We
all know Mars as the red planet, and it’s red
because there are iron minerals in the rocks.
At some point in Mars’ wet past, those iron
minerals oxidized leaving behind a rusted
planet.
But Pluto is red due to a different reason.
Now scientists know that Pluto’s
atmosphere and surface contain quantities
of methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide.
When UV light from the Sun reaches Pluto
More detailed study reports are awaited.
There are seven different scientific
equipment in the spacecraft, New Horizon –
3 optical Instruments, 2 plasma instrument,
1 dust sensor and 1 radio meter. Each of
these equipment has different functions to
fulfil.
Alice: It is an ultra violet imaging
spectrometer. It will study the structure of
Pluto’s atmosphere and identify its
ingredients and features.
Ralph: Ralph is the main eye of New Horizon.
The main task of this multi spectral visible
imaging camera (MVIC) is to prepare a map
of Pluto, its mons and other objects of the
Kuiper belt. The camera is equipped with 3
black and white imagers and 4 colour
imagers in addition to an infrared mapping
spectrometer.