Dwarf Planet Ahoy! Spacecraft Spies Pluto and Charon

astroengine writes "As NASA's New Horizons probe powers through interplanetary space, it's keeping a careful eye forward, watching its target gradually loom larger on the proverbial celestial horizon. But earlier this month the spacecraft spotted something right next to Pluto — a pixelated Charon, the dwarf planet's largest moon. 'The image itself might not look very impressive to the untrained eye, but compared to the discovery images of Charon from Earth, these 'discovery' images from New Horizons look great!' said New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD. 'We're very excited to see Pluto and Charon as separate objects for the first time from New Horizons.'"

Comments

Privacy

[maxwell demon]

So the NSA isn't content with spying all over the earth, they now also spy on Pluto and Charon. No, I'm not going to let the extra A after the N fool me. ;-)

It is NOT powering through interplanetary space

[Alain Williams]

It is drifting, continuing it's journey because of its momentum: launched on 19 January 2006 ... velocity of about 16.26 km/s after its last engine was shut down. OK: powering reads more dramatically, but is wrong.

Re:That's no moon

[oodaloop]

That's impossible. It's too small to be a space station.