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| Piú votate - Pluto and Charon: The "Double Planet" |
ZYZ-Pluto_s System.2jpg.jpgThe "colors" and a Schematic of Pluto's System71 visiteThe new HST/ACS observations made on March 2nd reveal that all three of Pluto's satellites are neutrally colored, unlike reddish Pluto itself. Pluto's reddish color is believed to be due to reddening agents created by the effects of sunlight acting on its Nitrogen and Methane surface ices. Charon's surface is known to consist primarily of water ice; the similar color of P1 and P2 may indicate they too have water ice surfaces.
The color similarity of Pluto's two small satellites to one another and to Charon is consistent with their all having been born as a result of a single giant impact, as previously indicated by their orbits and Charon's large mass.
(7 voti)
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ZV-Pluto System-HST~0.jpgHubble Space Telescope confirms NEW MOONS of Pluto!56 visiteAnxiously awaited follow-up observations with NASA's HST have confirmed the presence of two new moons around the distant planet Pluto. The moons were first discovered by Hubble in May 2005, but the science team probed even deeper into the Pluto System last week to look for additional satellites and to characterize the orbits of the moons.
Though the team had little doubt the moons are real, they were happy to see the moons show up very close to the locations predicted from the earlier Hubble observations. The initial discovery is being reported today in this week's edition of magazine "Nature".
(7 voti)
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ZS-Pluto System 00.jpgPluto's System: the movements of the bodies in three days54 visiteThese HST images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveal Pluto, its large moon Charon, and the planet's two new candidate satellites. Between May 15 and May 18, 2005, Charon, and the putative moons, provisionally designated P1 and P2, all appear to rotate counterclockwise around Pluto. P1 and P2 move less than Charon because they are farther from Pluto and therefore would be orbiting at slower speeds. P1 and P2 are thousands of times less bright than Pluto and Charon. The enhanced-color images of Pluto (the brightest object) and Charon (to the right of Pluto) were constructed by combining short exposure images taken in filters near 475 nnmts (blue) and 555 nnmts (green-yellow). The image of the new moons were made from longer exposures taken in a single filter centered near 606 nnmts (yellow) and therefore no color information is available for them.
(7 voti)
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ZYZ-Q-PlutoLatestColors.jpgThe "true" colors of Pluto (another interpretation)58 visiteUno studio sui possibili colori autentici di Plutone, realizzato dal bravo e modesto Ricercatore Don Davis, di cui abbiamo già apprezzato svariati studi ed elaborazioni sui "Colori del Sistema Solare" (Marte e Venere, in maniera particolare, sono - secondo noi - i suoi lavori più belli e riusciti).
Caption originale:"Pluto seems to have intriguing surface details, with pronounced contrast between white and yellow brown Regions. These regional contrasts have been largely detected by measurements of light changes as Pluto was eclipsed by its large satellite Charon, in the late 1980's. The albedo of Pluto ranges from 0,49 to 0,66, while darker more neutral colored Charon averages about 0,37".
(6 voti)
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ZY-Pluto_s System.jpgThe "colors" of Pluto's System62 visiteThe latest NASA HST images of Pluto's two newly discovered satellites reveal that the new moons have the same color as Charon.
All three of Pluto's satellites reflect the Sun's light equally across the visible spectrum and have essentially the same color as Earth's moon. Pluto, in contrast, has a reddish hue.
The common color of the moons further reinforces the idea that all three moons were born from a single titanic collision between Pluto and another similarly sized Kuiper Belt object billions of years ago.
The color exposures were made on March 2nd in both red (F606W) and blue (F435W) filters using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Pluto team hopes to make further observations in more color filters to more precisely characterize the moons.
(6 voti)
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ZX-Pluto_s System.jpgPluto's System61 visiteThis pair of NASA HST images shows the motion of Pluto's satellites between February 15th and March 2nd, 2006.
Both images were taken through a red filter (F606W) using the High Resolution Channel (HRC) of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). During this 15-day period, Pluto's newly-discovered satellite S/2005 P 2 (P2 for short) moved counterclockwise from the noon position to the 5 o'clock position, while the other newly-discovered satellite S/2005 P 1 (P1 for short) moved counterclockwise from the 1 o'clock position to the 7 o'clock position. During that same period, Pluto's much larger and closer moon, Charon, started near the 2 o'clock position, made more than two complete counterclockwise revolutions around Pluto and ended up near the 10 o' clock position. The motions of P1 and P2 confirm that these satellites are orbiting Pluto in the same plane as Charon's orbit, as expected if all the 3 moons were created during a single - and gigantic - impact event.
(6 voti)
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ZQ-Pluto System 02.jpgPluto's System: the observations of June 200255 visiteA careful search of HST images taken with the ACS/HRC on June 14th, 2002, reveals two objects that are consistent with the expected locations of the newly-discovered satellites. One image (top) was taken in yellow light (555 nm) and the other (bottom) was taken in blue light (475 nm). The ellipse shows the orbital path of the new satellites derived from the May 2005 HST observations. The satellites should lie somewhere along this ellipse and, indeed, there are two objects along the predicted path, thus confirming the 2005 observations.
(6 voti)
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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
(5 voti)
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Charon-PIA19709-PCF-LXTT-IPF-1.jpgThe Dark North Polar Regions of Charon (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)60 visiteAs you can see very well here, in today's APOD, remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this wonderful Extra Detail Magnification (or "EDM", for short) that shows us the North Polar Regions of Charon itself - the original Contextual Picture was taken from the New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (or "LORRI", for short), late on July 13, 2015, from a distance of about 289.000 miles (such as approx. 465.099,26 Km) from the Surface of this - however - unusually-looking Celestial Body.
Generally speaking, the Mission Scientists are surprised by the apparent lack of Impact Craters on Charon. But, in particular, all over Charon's North Polar Regions (that is VERY WELL seen here), a dark marking - which was already prominent in the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft' approach images - is now showing a diffuse (---> lighter in color) Boundary, suggesting that it could be a (thin?) Deposit of Dark Material (whose nature and origin are still - and, maybe, will remain - unknown).
So, what are we talking about? A North Polar Cap made out of Frozen Hydrocarbons? Or, perhaps, a Layer of a powdered dark mineral - like Coal - which, eons after eons, fell over a Surface of bright Water Ice North Polar Cap and then turned its color (almost) completely black? Who knows...
The image has been compressed to reduce its file size for transmission to Earth. In high-contrast areas of the original Contextual Image, Surface Features as small as about 3 miles (approx. 4,828 Km) across can be seen. Some lower-contrast detail is obscured by the compression of the image, which may make some areas appear smoother than they really are. The uncompressed version still resides in New Horizons' Computer Memory and is scheduled to be transmitted at a later date. Remember that the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft traveled more than three billion miles over nine-and-a-half years to reach the Plutonian System.
The image (which is a crop taken from 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
(5 voti)
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Nix-PIA19847-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgNix (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)60 visitePluto's tiny moon Nix (from the Latin word for "Snow"), is shown here in Absolute Natural Colors (as it was imaged by the NASA - New Horizons's Spacecraft "Ralph" instrument). This Celestial Body seems to have a global pinkish color, as well as a relatively large orange/ reddish spot that is located in its Southern Regions - perhaps, in our humble opinion, as IPF, a huge and deep Surface Depression - a "spot" that has - obviously - attracted the interest of the Mission Scientists.
The visual data shown here were obtained on the morning of July 14, 2015, and they were received on Earth on July 18.
At the time when this specific observation was taken, the NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft was about 102.000 miles (such as approx. 164.152,68 Km) from Nix. The image shows Surface Features as small as approximately 2 miles (about 3,218 Km) across on Nix, which is estimated to be about 26 miles (such as approx. 41,84284 Km) long and, roughly, 22 miles (such as about 35,40548 Km) wide.
The image (which is an Original NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft's falsely colored and NON Map-Projected frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. 19847) 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 Nix), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.MareKromium
(5 voti)
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ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-ZZ-Hydra-PIA19847-PCF-LXTT-IPF.jpgHydra (Absolute Natural Colors; credits for the additional process. and color.: Dr Paolo C. Fienga - Lunexit Team)60 visitePluto's small, and highly irregularly shaped moon Hydra, is, finally (but just partly), revealed in this Absolute Natural Colors image taken from the NASA - New Horizons' Spacecraft LORRI instrument on July 14, 2015, from a distance of about 143.000 miles (such as approx. 230.135,62 Km). Surface Features as small as approx. 0,7 miles (such as about 1,26 Km) are visible on Hydra, which measures, roughly, 34 miles (approx. 54,71756 Km) in length.
The dark and elongated Surface Feature visible towards the South Pole of the moon could be - but we, as IPF, have no way to be sure) a huge Impact Crater, somohow conceptually similar, if you think about it, to the gigantic Stickney Crater which is located on the Martian moon Phobos.
The image (which is an Original NASA - New Horizons Spacecraft's b/w and NON Map-Projected frame published on the NASA - Planetary Photojournal with the ID n. 19847) 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 Plutonian moon Hydra), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.MareKromium
(5 voti)
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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
(5 voti)
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