More and more accurately, and icebergs the size of Rocky Moutains Colorado. These are the main lessons of new photos Wednesday, July 15 sent by the probe New Horizons after his flight over the dwarf planet Tuesday. Spectacular new images of Pluto but also its largest moon, Charon.
The probe, who spent the day Tuesday to operate data records and take pictures, was finally able to turn to Earth to begin sending valuable data: “We are in communication with New Horizons for 5 h 50 this morning,” (11 h 50 French time), noted Wednesday Alan Stern, principal scientist Mission
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“Approximately 3,500 m of altitude “
The team in charge of the mission has shown a zoomed image and precise a small part of Pluto, illustrating the details that the new data will be discovered. “The image released Tuesday was already spectacular, now we have a resolution ten times more accurate and more amazing to me is that geologically the zoomed image, which shows an area 250 km wide, shows no crater impact, while Pluto is in the Kuiper Belt and is regularly bombarded with debris “ said John Spencer, one of the researchers of the mission.
” In this picture we also see some pretty high mountains, about 3500 m altitude. This shows us that Pluto ice crust is strong enough to support high mountains such as these, which are the size of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. “
The “Mordor” on Charon
New Horizons also took some very detailed pictures of Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet . “It’s a small world where we see a large dark area at the north pole, we nicknamed Mordor, there are cliffs, canyons which probably made a depth of 10 km … There so many interesting scientific evidence in this single image “, enthused Cathy Olkin, assistant director of the project
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Besides the team of New Horizons revealed baptising the large clear area in heart shape on Pluto the “region Tombaugh” named Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet in 1930.
It will take a total of sixteen months to send the probe on Earth all the data collected during its Tuesday close flyby of Pluto and its moons. Meanwhile, New Horizons continues her way to observe the Kuiper Belt, a vast pile of debris beyond the orbit of Neptune. This small probe, about the size of an upright piano, was launched in 2006, the same year that Pluto, long considered the ninth planet in our solar system, was reclassified as “dwarf planet” because of its small size
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