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| Piú viste - Pluto and Charon: The "Double Planet" |
ZA-Pluto-NOT.jpgPluto & Charon106 visiteUn esempio di eccellente immagine del Sistema (Binario) costituito da Plutone e Caronte ottenuta direttamente dalla Terra. Certo, non è possibile cogliere dettagli della superficie di Plutone (nè, tantomeno, di Caronte), ma la risoluzione dei due dischi ci pare davvero buona. Plutone è un mondo estremamente lontano e non ha mai costituito un obbiettivo di primario interesse, almeno sino a qualche tempo fa.
Tuttavia, alcune recenti scoperte relative, fra l'altro, alle peculiari caratteristiche della sua orbita, al tipo di relazione - in termini di rotazione - che intercorre fra Plutone stesso e Caronte e, infine, a delle (per ora inspiegabili) variazioni della sua albedo, hanno tutte contribuito ad accendere l'interesse degli Scienziati per questo mondo lontano che, forse, un giorno (fra qualche miliardo di anni, quando il Sole sarà una Gigante Rossa e se l'Umanità - ma ne dubitiamo... - esisterà ancora) potrebbe anche diventare la nostra "casa".
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Z-Pluto-lor_0299124574_0x632_sci_1-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgThe "White Heart" of Pluto (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)106 visiteA beautiful image, obtained by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (or "LORRI", for short), located onboard the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft, when the probe was about 0,8 Million KiloMeters away from the Target. This frame, in our humble opinion, needs no comments at all: we, as IPF, have named it "The White Heart" of Pluto. And that is it. For now, of course...
The image (which is an Original NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft's b/w and NON Map-Projected frame published on the NASA - Mew Horizons LORRI Image Catalog with the ID n. lor_0299124574_0x632_sci_1) has been additionally processed, magnified to aid the visibility of the details, contrast enhanced and sharpened, Gamma corrected and then colorized (according to an educated guess carried out by Dr Paolo C. Fienga-LXTT-IPF) in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft and then looked ahead, towards the Dwarf-Planet Pluto), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.MareKromium
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ZYZ-S-Pluto-P4-HST.jpgMore Moons for Pluto!101 visiteCaption NASA:"Nix and Hydra were first introduced to human eyes in Hubble Space Telescope images from May 2005, as Pluto's second and third known moons. Now Hubble images have revealed a fourth satellite for the icy, dwarf Planet.
Provisionally designated P4, it completes an orbit of Pluto in about 31 days. Presently Pluto's smallest and dimmest known moon, P4 is estimated to be 13 to 34 Km across. The newly discovered satellite was first spotted in Hubble observations from June 28, 2011, and later confirmed in a follow-up on July 3 and July 18. These two panels are composites of both the short and long exposures that include brighter Pluto itself along with Pluto's largest moon Charon.
Camera noise and image artifacts also show up in the long exposure segments. The Hubble observations were made while searching for faint Rings around the distant world in support of NASA's New Horizons mission, set to fly by the Pluto system in 2015".MareKromium
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-20100727_LORRILooksBack_lg.jpgOn the Way to Pluto: Jupiter, Europa and Ganymede98 visiteCaption NASA:"New Horizons had an exciting Fly-By encounter with Jupiter in early 2007, and the Spacecraft has been rapidly moving away from the Giant Planet ever since.
The New Horizons team looked back at Jupiter during Annual Checkout (ACO) to test the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)'s ability to image targets close, in angle, to the Sun.
This image was taken on June 24, 2010, when New Horizons was 16,3 Astronomical Units (about 1,5 Billion Miles) from Jupiter, at a Spacecraft-Sun-Planet angle of only 17°. Looking like Earth's moon at a quarter phase, Jupiter is clearly resolved, with an apparent diameter of nearly 12 LORRI pixels. LORRI also picks up the moons Ganymede and Europa, even though the exposure time was only 9 milliseconds and these Galilean satellites are extremely faint in comparison to Jupiter".MareKromium
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ZD-Pluto.jpgPluto and the stars around...92 visiteUn'immagine, a nostro parere, altamente suggestiva di Plutone e del campo stellato che lo circonda. Anche questo frame è stata estratto dalla "2MASS Atlas Image Gallery at IPAC".
Plutone è l'oggetto posizionato ESATTAMENTE AL CENTRO della fotografia.
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Pluto-nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew-PCF-LXTT-IPF-1.jpgFarewell to Pluto - Part II (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga/Lunar Explorer Italia/Italian Planetary Foundation)89 visiteEven though it is (just slightly) unevenly backlit by the Sun, Pluto’s Atmosphere shows its "foggy" silhouette like a Luminous Halo in this beautiful Extra Detail Magnification (or "EDM", for short) obtained from a Contextual Image taken by the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft around midnight (EDT) on July, 15, 2015 (and shown in yesterday's APOD).
This partial portrait of the Plutonian Atmosphere was captured when the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft was already about 1,25 Million Miles (such as approx. 2.011.675 Million KiloMeters) away from Pluto, and it shows us the most illuminated Atmospherical Structures (quite similar, in our opinion, as IPF, to the ones visible all around the Saturnian moon Titan) as small as roughly 12 miles (approx. 19,312 Km) across. The image, which has been received on Earth on July, 23, 2015, is displayed with the North Pole of Pluto at the top of the frame.
The image (which is a crop taken from an Original NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft's b/w and NON Map-Projected frame published on the NASA - Mew Horizons Page of July, 24, 2015 and with the ID n. nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew) has been additionally processed, magnified to aid the visibility of the details, contrast enhanced and sharpened, Gamma corrected and then colorized (according to an educated guess carried out by Dr Paolo C. Fienga-LXTT-IPF) in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft and then looked ahead, towards the Dwarf-Planet Pluto), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.MareKromium
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ZC-Pluto_s Map-HST-PIA00825_modest.jpgA "Map" of Pluto, from HST88 visiteCaption NASA originale:"The two smaller inset pictures at the top are actual images from HST; North is up. Each square pixel (picture element) is more than 160 Km across. At this resolution, HST discerns roughly 12 major "regions" where the surface is either bright or dark. The picture was taken in blue light when Pluto was at a distance of about 3 BMs from Earth".
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ZE-Pluto-fict-map.jpgFictional Map of Pluto88 visiteLa superficie di Plutone - così ben dettagliata - è frutto dell'immaginazione dell'Artista; altrettanto, invece, non si può dire del colore del paesaggio il quale - a quanto ci è stato detto - è coerente con quanto pensano gli Scienziati che hanno osservato e fotografato Plutone usando le spettacolari ottiche dell'HST, nonchè le tecniche di ripresa maggiormente efficaci ed all'avanguardia. Le stesse tecniche, guarda caso, che ci permettono di dire che la superficie della lontanissima Sedna è rossiccia, ma che non risultano adeguate a chiarire il mistero dei "colori" del vicino - in tutti i sensi - Marte.
Curioso, non credete?!?
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Pluto-nh_01_stern_05_pluto_hazenew-PCF-LXTT-IPF-00.jpgPlutonian Night88 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Charon-PIA19709-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgCharon (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)86 visiteRemarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this wonderful image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (or "LORRI", for short), that was taken late on July 13, 2015, from a distance of about 289.000 miles (such as approx. 465.099,26 Km). A swath of Cliffs and Troughs stretches about 600 miles (approx. 1609,34 Km) from left (Sx) to right (Dx), suggesting the occurrence, in a remote past, of a widespread fracturing of Charon's Crust (likely a result of internal processes). At the upper righ (Dx) of the framet, along the moon's curving edge, there is a Canyon that is estimated to be approx. 4 to 6 miles (such as about 6,437 to roughly 9,656 Km) deep.
The Mission Scientists are surprised by the apparent lack of Impact Craters on Charon. South of the moon's Equator, at the bottom of this image, Terrain is lit by the slanting Rays of the Sun, and thus creating shadows that make it easier to distinguish its real Topography. Even here, however, relatively few Impact Craters are visible, and this circumstance indicates a (relatively speaking) young Surface that, probably, has been often reshaped by Geologic Activites.
In Charon's North Polar Regions, a dark marking - which was already prominent in the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft' approach images - is now seen to have a diffuse (---> lighter in color) Boundary, suggesting that it could be a thin Deposit of Dark Material. Underlying, it is a distinct, sharply bounded, Angular Surface Feature; higher resolution images still to come are expected to shed more light on this truly enigmatic Region.
The image (which is an Original NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft's falsely colored and NON Map-Projected frame published on the NASA - Planetary Phojournal with the ID n. 19709) has been additionally processed, magnified to aid the visibility of the details, contrast enhanced and sharpened, Gamma corrected and then re-colorized (according to an educated guess carried out by Dr Paolo C. Fienga-LXTT-IPF) in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a normal human eye would actually perceive if someone were onboard the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft and then looked ahead, towards the Plutonian moon Charon), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.MareKromium
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ZB-Surface map of Pluto-HST-PIA00826_modest.jpgA "Map" of Pluto, from HST85 visiteCaption NASA originale:"This map that covers about 85% of the surface of the Planet confirms that Pluto has a dark equatorial belt and bright polar caps. The brightness variations in this map may be due to topographic features such as basins and fresh impact craters. Pluto itself probably shows even more contrast and perhaps sharper boundaries between light and dark areas than is shown here, but HST resolution (just like early telescopic views of Mars) tends to blur edges and blend together small features sitting inside larger ones".
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Pluto-Surface.jpgUnusually-looking Surface Features along the Plutonian Terminator82 visiteDa "NASA - Picture of the Day" del 16 Luglio 2015.
"An about 50 miles (such as approx. 80 Km) trip across Pluto would cover the distance indicated by the scale bar in this startling image.
The close-up of the icy world's rugged Equatorial Terrain was captured when the New Horizons Spacecraft was about 47.800 miles (approx. 77.000 Km) from the Surface, 1,5 hours (i.e.: 90 minutes) before its closest approach.
Rising to an estimated 11.000 feet (about 3500 meters), the Mountains visible here are likely composed of (mostly - added by Lunexit) Water Ice.
Suggesting surprising geological activity, they are also likely young with an estimated age of about 100 MY (Million Years). This speculation is based on the apparent absence of "fresh" Impact Craters.
The area pictured is near the base of Pluto's broad, bright and heart-shaped Region".MareKromium
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