NASA released more new images of Pluto last Thursday, and, as has come to be expected, they are spectacular. The “snakeskin” image shows rippling terrain reminiscent of snakeskin or dragon scales, while other images show Pluto’s surface in the highest colour resolution yet. Spectral maps showing the distribution of methane ice on Pluto’s surface were also released today.
New images of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft were released last Thursday… and they are spectacular. The views across Pluto’s icy mountains and plains are haunting and almost surreal, yet familiar looking at the same time. What was once only a tiny pinpoint of light in the night sky is now a complex and fascinating world, in some ways similar to our own, seen close-up for the first time ever.
After a lull of several weeks, the downlinking of new data from the New Horizons spacecraft has begun, including stunning new images of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, as well as a treasure trove of other scientific data. There is so much to come that it will take about one year to downlink everything from the spacecraft and send back to Earth. Those first amazing images of Pluto and its moons were only the beginning.
Read MoreHere it comes! massive downlink of Pluto data starts with spectacular new images
It has been nearly a month and a half since the historic flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, and now the mission team has selected its next target for exploration – a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69, which orbits the Sun about a billion miles further than Pluto. This will be the first time such a remote object in the Kuiper belt has been visited by a spacecraft from Earth.
Read MoreOnward!: NASA selects next destination for New Horizons in Kuiper Belt
A bunch of amazing new Pluto images, released yesterday, July 24, including flowing nitrogen ice, similar to glaciers on Earth, and haze in Pluto’s atmosphere. A very alien world!