Pluto Reaches the Sign of Success

As expected, New Horizons has called home shortly before 3 in the morning and said that everything went well. That’s when the real celebration begins at NASA: applause, pennants back and forth… “We have a healthy spaceship,” says Alice Bowman, chief operating officer of the mission, “We leave Pluto.”

In addition, they have confirmed that New Horizons' memory is full of scientific data. “Following in the footsteps of planetary missions like Mariner, Pioneer and Voyager, New Horizons has triumphed in Pluto,” said Alan Stern. Obama also thanked NASA via twitter. Today they expect to receive an image.

NASA's New Horizons probe arrived yesterday next to Pluto. Nine and a half years, and after covering an approximate distance of 5 billion kilometers, it reached the closest point of the dwarf planet at 13:49, 12,500 kilometers.

Yesterday we had very little news, as the probe barely sent information because it was scheduled to make as many observations as possible. After passing through the nearest point of Pluto, at 14:04 it passed by the nearest point to Karon, although it remained very far from Pluto, to 29,000 kilometers. The tour was then designed to pass through the shadow of Pluto and Karón. In this way he could study Pluto's atmosphere and check if Charon also has atmosphere.

New Horizons probe. It has a height of 0.7 meters, a length of 2.1 m and a width of 2.7 m. and 478 kg of weight. Ed. ANDÉN

Then on his way well, he had to call his house to tell him that everything was fine. The desired calls (2:53) reached the small hours of the night and so it has been. Those responsible for the mission said yesterday that the probability of losing the mission was 2 of 10,000 and have not failed. The first photos are expected from today at NASA, but to receive all the information gathered in those hours near Pluto you will have to wait patiently, as it will take 16 months to send the 60 Gb received.

This is the first time an object of Kuiper's belt has been closely observed. And, not only one, the New Horizons probe has had the opportunity to observe at least six: Pluto and its five moons, Karon, Estix, Nix, Zerbero and Hydra. The New Horizons has already offered several photographs and data taken during its approach. For example, it has determined that the diameter of Pluto is 2,370 kilometers (with a root of 10 km), 70 kilometers more than the last calculations indicated. Karon has also affirmed a diameter of 1208 kilometers and has given the diameters of two other moons: Nixe is about 35 km and Hydra 45.

Journey of nine and a half years

New Horizons probe. Pre-shipment preparatory tasks. Ed. Information

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006 from Cape Canaveral (Florida) with the maximum escape speed achieved: 16 km/s (58,536 km/h). In 2007 it passed by Jupiter and with its gravity increases the speed by 4 km/s. Thanks to this, New Horizons has taken three years less to reach Pluto. To save energy, in the same year 2007 it was introduced in the fire pit until 2014.

When he left, he supposedly headed for the last planet in the Solar System, but that changed that same year. In fact, it was decided that Pluto was not a planet, but a dwarf planet. And it would not be the only change along the way. The moons Nix and Hydra had just been discovered (2005) when New Horizons came out, but the last two were not known. The Hubble Telescope detected Zerbero in 2011 and Estix in 2012. It was a great surprise. The system was more complex than expected.

The dwarf planet Pluto and its major moon, Charon, form a binary system. They spin together through the same center of gravity between them, always showing the same difference. And they are surrounded, quite chaotic, by the other four small moons, all much smaller than in Charon.

Pluto 50 million kilometers Ed. Information

Simulating a dwarf planet

As he approaches the New Horizons Pluto, which was once a diffuse light point, has been transformed into a real dwarf planet. At the beginning of June, at 50 million kilometers, it was still very blurred, but New Horizons (on the right) took a better picture than he had ever taken with telescopes.

On July 7, 8 million kilometers away, he photographed the area closest to Pluto (below). The large dark spot on the bottom and left was called “whale” and the clear spot on the right “heart”.

Pluto 8 million kilometers Ed. Information

The image of July 8, 6 million kilometers away, made clear how different Pluto (right) and Karon (left) are. Reddish pluto with contrast between bright and dark spots. Caron is darker overall and has an even darker pole.

Pluto and Karon, 6 million kilometers Ed. Information

The other image of Pluto, on July 11, 4 million kilometers from Pluto, is the best image on the side you will not see in the coming days. You see a band of dark dots and a circular and hexagonal shape at the top. Scientists don't know what they can be.

Pluto needs 6.38 days to turn around himself, so in the 3 closest days you can only observe the other side. However, when he moves away, he again has another opportunity to analyze the other side, taking advantage of the light reflected by Karon.

Pluto, 4 million kilometers Ed. Information

In this other photograph taken on July 11 to Karon you can see craters and giant cannons. The largest of the canyons is longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon of Arizona.

Foz by Karon Ed. Information

Pluto, 766,000 kilometers. Ed. Information