[meteorite-list] NASA's New Horizons Detects Surface Features, Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

[Ron Baalke]

April 29, 2015

RELEASE 15-078

NASA's New Horizons Detects Surface Features, Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

For the first time, images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft are 
revealing bright and dark regions on the surface of faraway Pluto - the 
primary target of the New Horizons close flyby in mid-July.

The images were captured in early to mid-April from within 70 million miles 
(113 million kilometers), using the telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance 
Imager (LORRI) camera on New Horizons. A technique called image deconvolution 
sharpens the raw, unprocessed images beamed back to Earth. New Horizons 
scientists interpreted the data to reveal the dwarf planet has broad surface 
markings - some bright, some dark - including a bright area at one pole 
that may be a polar cap.

"As we approach the Pluto system we are starting to see intriguing features 
such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole, starting the great 
scientific adventure to understand this enigmatic celestial object," says 
John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate in Washington. "As we get closer, the excitement is building in 
our quest to unravel the mysteries of Pluto using data from New Horizons."

Also captured in the images is Pluto's largest moon, Charon, rotating in 
its 6.4-day long orbit. The exposure times used to create this image set - 
a tenth of a second - were too short for the camera to detect Pluto's 
four much smaller and fainter moons.

Since it was discovered in 1930, Pluto has remained an enigma. It orbits our 
sun more than 3 billion miles (about 5 billion kilometers) from Earth, and 
researchers have struggled to discern any details about its surface. These 
latest New Horizons images allow the mission science team to detect clear 
differences in brightness across Pluto's surface as it rotates.

"After traveling more than nine years through space, it's stunning to see 
Pluto, literally a dot of light as seen from Earth, becoming a real place 
right before our eyes," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal 
investigator at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "These 
incredible images are the first in which we can begin to see detail on Pluto, 
and they are already showing us that Pluto has a complex surface."

The images the spacecraft returns will dramatically improve as New Horizons 
speeds closer to its July rendezvous with Pluto.

"We can only imagine what surprises will be revealed when New Horizons 
passes approximately 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) above Pluto's surface 
this summer," said Hal Weaver, the mission's project scientist at the 
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, 
Maryland.

APL designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages 
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. 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.

To view images from New Horizons and learn more about the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

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