News Nation Logo

NASA's New Horizons probe beams back stunning picture of Pluto in twilight

Yet Another Stunning Picture Of Pluto Has Been Beamed Back By NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft. This Time The Image Shows Sunlight Filtering Through And Illuminating Complex Atmospheric Haze Layers Of The Icy Dwarf Planet. The New Horizons Captured The Picture Minutes After Its Closest Approach On July 14 Last Year, NASA Said.

PTI | Updated on: 06 Jun 2016, 03:40:47 PM
NASA probe captures Pluto in twilight

Washington:

Yet another stunning picture of Pluto has been beamed back by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. This time the image shows sunlight filtering through and illuminating complex atmospheric haze layers of the icy dwarf planet. The New Horizons captured the picture minutes after its closest approach on July 14 last year, NASA said.

The southern portions of the nitrogen ice plains informally named Sputnik Planum and the mountains of the informally named Norgay Montes, are also visible across Pluto’s crescent in the image.

The image was obtained at a high phase angle - that is, with the Sun on the other side of Pluto, as viewed by New Horizons.
Through these pictures, scientists get information about Pluto’s hazes and surface properties. Images taken on approach do not provide such information to the scientists.

New Horizons’ Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) obtained the picture approximately 21,550 kilometres from Pluto, about 19 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach. The image has a resolution of 430 metres per pixel. Pluto’s diameter is 2,374 kilometres.

The image shows details of Pluto’s crescent, including an intriguing bright wisp measuring tens of miles across that may be a discreet, low-lying cloud in Pluto’s atmosphere.

If so, it would be the only one yet identified in New Horizons imagery. This cloud - if that is what it is - is visible due to the illumination from the sunlight grazing Pluto’s surface at a low angle.

Methane clouds can occasionally form in Pluto’s atmosphere, suggests atmospheric models. The image also shows details on the night side of Pluto. This terrain can be seen because it is illuminated from behind by hazes that silhouette the limb.

The topography appears quite rugged, and broad valleys and sharp peaks with relief totalling 5 kilometres are apparent, researchers said. The image, made from closer range, is much better than the lower-resolution images of this same terrain taken several days before closest approach.

The silhouetted terrains therefore act as a useful “anchor point,” giving New Horizons scientists a rare, detailed glimpse at the lay of the land in this mysterious part of Pluto seen at high resolution only in twilight. 

(With inputs from PTI)

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.

First Published : 06 Jun 2016, 03:32:00 PM

Related Tags:

NASA Pluto

Videos