NASA released Friday a new series of unique pictures showing the dwarf planet Pluto very closely and in high resolution. The New Horizons probe, no bigger than a grand piano, Pluto had flown over 12 400 km away in July to take pictures at a resolution of 85 to 77 meters per pixel. At this scale, it could discern a park on the planet Earth.
On July 14, the probe New Horizons NASA was the first spacecraft to pass through Pluto. Pluto High resolution images had already been published revealing geographic diversity with high mountains, sand dunes and ice shelves.
The transfer of information continues since Pluto
“This level of quality was only possible after decades of overflights for Venus or Mars. Pluto we are already exploring the craters, mountains and ice fields, less than five months after the flyover !, welcomed Mr. Stern.
“What we can do from a point scientific views with these images is simply amazing, “he added. The New Horizons probe – the size of a piano tail- continues to transmit images and, given the mass of information collected, the transfer should last until the end of the year
In October, the data collected by the probe had revealed the blue sky of Pluto, and a rich variety of colors, dark and red zones from the equator to bright and blue regions at high latitudes .
The planet Pluto
Pluto is the planet dwarf the most voluminous ( 2 370 km in diameter, against 2326 km (136199) Eris) known in the solar system and the second at the ground (after Eris). As such, Pluto is the ninth largest object orbiting the Sun (except gas giant moons) and tenth at ground level. First identified trans-Neptunian object, Pluto orbits the Sun at a distance varying between 30 and 49 astronomical units and belongs to the Kuiper belt, belt which he is (both by the size by weight) the largest known member.
After its discovery by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, Pluto was considered the ninth planet of the solar system. At the end of xx th century and beginning of the xx th century, more and more similar objects were discovered in the outer solar system, especially Eris, then estimated slightly larger and more massive than Pluto. These developments led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefined the term planet; Ceres, Pluto and Eris are from the desplanètes classified as dwarf 3 . The IAU also decided to Pluto the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian object. Following this change of nomenclature, Pluto was added to the list of minor objects in the Solar System and was awarded the numéro134340 in the catalog of minor objects.
Pluto is mainly composed of rock and methane ice, but also of water ice. Its diameter is about two thirds of that of the Moon.
spacecraft New Horizons , launched in by NASA, is the first probe to explore the Moons of Pluto; it crosses the at a minimum distance of 11,095 km Pluto, after a journey of 6400000000 of kilometers. (Source wikipedia)
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