NASA releases complete image of Pluto's crescent

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Listen to this article

noicon

Audio file created from text revision dated 2015-11-1 and may not reflect subsequent edits to this report.

Audio Help / Audio Wikinews

On Thursday, NASA released the first complete picture of Pluto's crescent from the New Horizons probe. The probe captured the image with its Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14, fifteen minutes after closest approach to the planet.

After nine years' journey, New Horizons made closest approach to Pluto on July 14 and released the first coloured photo of the dwarf planet's atmospheric haze on October 8. An incomplete crescent photo of Pluto was released in September.

The photo shows different layers of the haze of Pluto's faint atmosphere with Sputnik Planum, an icy plain, visible on the right side and uneven plateaus on the dark left side.

Charon's Craters

Scientists also announced their discovery that 5km wide Organa crater on Charon, the largest satellite of Pluto, absorbed large amount of radiation of wavelength 2.2µm in an infrared scan, evidence of frozen ammonia. A nearby crater, named Skywalker, of comparable size showed the presence of water ice.

Will Grundy from the New Horizons composition team said "Why are these two similar-looking and similar-sized craters, so near to each other, so compositionally distinct?" He also proposed various ideas about the abundance of ammonia. The impact creating the crater could be more recent, or may have hit a subsurface ammonia pocket, or brought ammonia with it.

Studies in 2000 revealed that Charon has ammonia, but its concentration in the Organa crater was extraordinarily high.

Bill McKinnon, New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging deputy lead, called it "a fantastic discovery". He further said "Concentrated ammonia is a powerful antifreeze on icy worlds, and if the ammonia really is from Charon’s interior, it could help explain the formation of Charon's surface by cryovolcanism, via the eruption of cold, ammonia-water magmas."

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Related news

"After Mars, NASA announces water ice on Pluto" — Wikinews, October 9, 2015
"NASA's New Horizons space probe performs first close planetary flyby of Pluto" — Wikinews, July 17, 2015

Sources

Tricia Talbert. "The Youngest Crater on Charon?" — NASA, October 29, 2015
Tricia Talbert. "A Full View of Pluto’s Stunning Crescent" — NASA, October 29, 2015
Eric Berger. "New Horizons returns stunning image of Pluto backlit by the Sun" — Ars Technica, October 29, 2015
Loren Grush. "NASA releases full, jaw-dropping view of Pluto's crescent" — The Verge, October 29, 2015

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License