15 April 2015 Science & Environment
New Horizons was 115 million km from Pluto
(larger sphere) when its Ralph camera captured
the view
The New Horizons probe, which is bearing down
on Pluto, has captured its first colour image of
the distant dwarf planet.
The picture, just released by the US space
agency, shows a reddish world accompanied by
its biggest moon, Charon.
New Horizons is set to barrel past Pluto on 14
July.
It will acquire a mass of data that it will then
return to Earth very slowly over the course of
the next 16 months.
At the current separation of nearly five billion
km, it takes 4.6 hours for radio signals to come
back. And the bit rate is painfully slow.
But the encounter is set to be the major space
event of 2015. It will complete the
reconnaissance of the "classical nine" planets of
our Solar System; New Horizon's flyby will mean
every one has been visited at least once by a
space probe.
However, not since the Voyager 2 satellite
passed Neptune in the late 1980s has a new
world been revealed up close in the same way
as will occur in mid-July.
Today, our best pictures of the 2,300km-wide
Pluto come from the Hubble telescope. They are
just blobs that make it very hard to discern
anything of scientific certainty.
But from May, this will change, as the
approaching New Horizons spacecraft starts to
return pictures that begin to better in resolution
anything Hubble has managed.
Tuesday's release merely whets the appetite.
The picture was acquired by the spacecraft's
Ralph colour imager on 9 April.
New Horizons was 115 million km - roughly the
distance from the Sun to Venus - at the time.
Even at this distance, it is possible to resolve
some differences in appearance between the
dwarf and its moon. One seems brighter than the
other.
When New Horizons flies by Pluto on 14 July,
Ralph will deliver colour images that show
surface features as small as a few km across.
"The spacecraft is in perfect health; it's full of
fuel; and it's carrying a scientific arsenal of
seven instruments that are combined the most
powerful suite of instruments ever brought to
bear on the first reconnaissance of a new
planet, enthused Alan Stern, New Horizons
principal investigator.
"Nothing like this has been done in a quarter of a
century and nothing like this is being planned
again by any space agency.
"This is a real moment in time for you to watch
us turn a point of light into a planet."
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and
follow me on Twitter: BBCAmos
New Horizons was 115 million km from Pluto
(larger sphere) when its Ralph camera captured
the view
The New Horizons probe, which is bearing down
on Pluto, has captured its first colour image of
the distant dwarf planet.
The picture, just released by the US space
agency, shows a reddish world accompanied by
its biggest moon, Charon.
New Horizons is set to barrel past Pluto on 14
July.
It will acquire a mass of data that it will then
return to Earth very slowly over the course of
the next 16 months.
At the current separation of nearly five billion
km, it takes 4.6 hours for radio signals to come
back. And the bit rate is painfully slow.
But the encounter is set to be the major space
event of 2015. It will complete the
reconnaissance of the "classical nine" planets of
our Solar System; New Horizon's flyby will mean
every one has been visited at least once by a
space probe.
However, not since the Voyager 2 satellite
passed Neptune in the late 1980s has a new
world been revealed up close in the same way
as will occur in mid-July.
Today, our best pictures of the 2,300km-wide
Pluto come from the Hubble telescope. They are
just blobs that make it very hard to discern
anything of scientific certainty.
But from May, this will change, as the
approaching New Horizons spacecraft starts to
return pictures that begin to better in resolution
anything Hubble has managed.
Tuesday's release merely whets the appetite.
The picture was acquired by the spacecraft's
Ralph colour imager on 9 April.
New Horizons was 115 million km - roughly the
distance from the Sun to Venus - at the time.
Even at this distance, it is possible to resolve
some differences in appearance between the
dwarf and its moon. One seems brighter than the
other.
When New Horizons flies by Pluto on 14 July,
Ralph will deliver colour images that show
surface features as small as a few km across.
"The spacecraft is in perfect health; it's full of
fuel; and it's carrying a scientific arsenal of
seven instruments that are combined the most
powerful suite of instruments ever brought to
bear on the first reconnaissance of a new
planet, enthused Alan Stern, New Horizons
principal investigator.
"Nothing like this has been done in a quarter of a
century and nothing like this is being planned
again by any space agency.
"This is a real moment in time for you to watch
us turn a point of light into a planet."
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and
follow me on Twitter: BBCAmos
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