(Pocket-lint) – Back in 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons interplanetary space probe. That probe’s mission was initially to perform a flyby study of Pluto and in 2015 it managed to do just that.
Some of the first images from the probe depicted a blurry vision of Pluto. With round spots in space and nothing particularly exciting. But as the probe went further and further into space, the images sent back became clearer and clearer. Some of the images since then have been remarkable and have helped the space agency learn more about the so-called dwarf planet.
We’ve collected some of the interesting images of Pluto that NASA has collected so far.
What is New Horizons?
New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe built by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched it in 2006 as part of the New Frontiers programwith the purpose of studying Pluto, its moons, and the Kuiper Belt.
New Horizons was intended to pass within 7,800 miles (12,500 km) of Pluto, and its closest approach happened on 14 July 2015. It also came as close as 17,900 miles (28,800 km) to Charon, the largest of Pluto’s five known moons. The probe took roughly nine years to reach Pluto and is now heading in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.
Radio signals took about four and a half hours to travel between the probe and Earth, and NASA has been posting the latest news and photos from the probe’s flyby to its mission website.
What has NASA learned from the flyby thus far?
NASA has said that “icy mountains on Pluto and a new, crisp view of its largest moon, Charon” are among the several discoveries made by the New Horizons team – just one day after the probe’s first-ever Pluto flyby.
Here’s a list of some of the more interesting tidbits, according to NASA:
- New Horizons snapped an image of an equatorial region near the base of Pluto, capturing a mountain range with peaks as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface of the icy body.
- Scientists believe the mountains on Pluto likely formed 100 million years ago, and that the region, which covers about one per cent of Pluto’s surface, may still be geologically active.
- Pluto has a vast, frozen, craterless plane that also appears to be no more than 100 million years old and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. It is north of Pluto’s icy mountains, in the center-left of the heart feature.
- Interestingly, Pluto isn’t heated by gravitational interactions with a much larger planetary body, so NASA figures some other process must be generating the mountainous landscape.
- Pluto has an extended atmosphere predominantly made of nitrogen that extends tens of thousands of miles beyond the dwarf planet. Also, as the solar wind interacts with Pluto, it appears that the atmosphere is being “blown back” and forming a long tail of cold, dense ionized gas up to 68,000 miles (109,000 km) long.
- Spectroscopic data from New Horizons’ Ralph instruments reveal an abundance of methane ice on Pluto, but with “striking differences among regions across the frozen surface of Pluto”.
- New Horizons snapped an image of Charon, capturing its varied terrain, apparently lacking craters, a canyon estimated to be 4 to 6 miles (7 to 9 km) deep, and a swath of cliffs and troughs stretching about 600 miles (1,000 km, the latter of which suggests widespread fracturing of Charon’s crust due to internal geological processes.
- New Horizons also observed the smaller members of the Pluto system, which includes four other moons: Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos.
- New Horizons snapped an image of Hydra, revealing its irregular shape and size and surface (which is probably coasted with water ice). Hydra is estimated to be about 27 by 20 miles (43 by 33 km).
The distant marble
This is an enhanced color image of Pluto.
It allows NASA scientists to detect differences in the composition and texture of Pluto’s surface.
NASA basically combined close-up images with color data from the Ralph instrument on the New Horizon spacecraft in order to paint the dwarf planet. The image was taken 280,000 miles (450,000 km) away.
Pluto’s giant ice volcanoes
Since the New Horizon spacecraft passed close to Pluto in 2015, scientists have been studying data the probe sent back.
On 29 March 2022, those scientists revealed that they had discovered interesting things about the surface of Pluto. Namely that it’s changed by Cryovolcanic flows (ice volcanoes) and is far more geologically active than it was thought a planet this cold could be.
The backside of Pluto
NASA titled this image: “Pluto sends a breathtaking farewell to New Horizons”.
It shows the dwarf planet backlit by the sun as the space probe headed onwards on its journey deep into space.
Pluto’s atmosphere is a luminous silhouette of the planet and an intriguing view from this side. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took this image about 1.25 million miles (2 million km) from Pluto.
Long range images
New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles from Pluto and Charon on 8 July 2015, when this image was captured.
It might not be as impressive as the other images but it certainly shows the journey to capture what we’re seeing more recently.
Pluto’s smallest moon
Pluto’s smallest moon (or “satellite”) is Nix, and New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager captured this image of what scientists believe is one end of Nix’s elongated body about 25 miles in diameter.
This is another of the blurry images the space probe first captured.
Into focus
As the space probe drew closer, we started to see clearer images of Pluto and its surrounding moons.
NASA said this image is of two of Pluto’s smaller moons (or “satellites”) coming into focus.
Frozen surface
Naturally being so far from the sun Pluto gets a bit cold. In fact surface temps are thought to be around −229 ° C on average.
This is an annotated view of a portion of Pluto’s frozen plain (which is north of Pluto’s icy mountains, in the center-left of the heart feature). It shows some of the points of interest on the surface which NASA has been studying.
Close up views
The close-up image was taken about 1.5 hours before New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, when the craft was 47,800 miles (77,000 km) from the surface of the planet.
Charon
It wasn’t just Pluto that the space probe was tasked with capturing either.
Here Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, was captured by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on 13 July 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 km).
This and other images show that Charon has an interesting surface that’s covered with mountains, canyons, landslides, surface-color variations and more. All of which was a surprise to New Horizons scientists.
Blurry Hydra
Hydra – another Pluto moon – was approximately 400,000 miles away from New Horizons when the image was captured.
Pluto’s bright, mysterious heart
NASA has described this image as “Pluto’s bright, mysterious heart” rotating into view. It was taken by New Horizons on 12 July 2015 from a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.5 million km).
Coming into view
The image of Pluto was captured by New Horizons on 13 July 2015, a day before its closest approach. The probe was above 476,000 miles from Pluto’s surface.
Pluto and Charon
NASA exaggerated the colors in this image of Pluto and Charon, which was taken on 13 July 2015, in order to show their differences. The two bodies also aren’t that close together.
An icy mountain range
An icy mountain range on the lower-left edge of Pluto’s heart.
Pluto’s highlands
This is an enhanced color view of Pluto which shows the southeastern part of Pluto’s surface, in particular the great ice plains.
The dark red color is said to come from tholins – A type of complex molecule found on Pluto.
The surface can be seen to be heavily pitted and it’s said that this is caused by surface collapse, but it’s not known why that’s what happened.
The Frozen Canyons
Another view of Pluto, this time of the North Pole, shows just how varied the surface is. Scientists have found it to be geologically diverse and full of surprises.
Writing by Maggie Tillman and Adrian Willings.
