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New Horizons Captures First Color Image of Pluto and Charon

Posted by Soulskill on from the pictures-that-are-both-unimpressive-and-really-impressive dept.

192_kbps writes: NASA published today the first color image of Pluto and Charon captured by the New Horizons probe, revealing a reddish world. "The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons has traveled a longer time and farther away - more than nine years and three billion miles - than any space mission in history to reach its primary target. Its flyby of Pluto and its system of at least five moons on July 14 will complete the initial reconnaissance of the classical solar system. This mission also opens the door to an entirely new "third" zone of mysterious small planets and planetary building blocks in the Kuiper Belt, a large area with numerous objects beyond Neptune's orbit." The picture is blurry, but far better than the few pixels Hubble can resolve, the image whets the appetite for New Horizon's closest approach on July 14th."

78 comments

  1. photo too blurry by ganjadude · · Score: 0

    while I look forward to the probe making it there, at the current time the photo is simply too blurry to be useful (to the avg person)

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    1. Re:photo too blurry by CaptainLard · · Score: 5, Interesting

      the photo is simply too blurry to be useful (to the avg person)

      What use does the average person have for any photo of outer space objects? If its simply to whet the appetite for better cooler stuff to come then its done its job for you right? Me personally I always had an image of pluto being bluish gray from some artists conception I saw when i was 5 or so. To find out it may be red just blew my mind! (sorta) I'd say that was useful to me...of course it didn't make me any money so perhaps you're right after all.

    2. Re:photo too blurry by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Every depiction I've seen of it indicates blue. How could all the experts have gotten it wrong all these years?

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    3. Re:photo too blurry by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That the photograph is color, able to distinguish the different shades of Pluto and Charon, is _wonderful_ and an exciting hint of more data to come. I'm delighted by the new theories that Pluto may have a subterranean ocean, much like Europa, in recent science essays I've read. The idea that a planet as remote and as poor in solar energy as Pluto could host life in such an ocean is even more amazing, and this new probe could reveal the pre-requisites for life as we know it to exist even on Pluto.

      It's wonderful to live in times with such evolution of science and knowledge. I must applaud NASA for realizing that this mission was worth the time and effort and funding to launch it.

    4. Re:photo too blurry by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What would keep an ocean on Pluto from freezing? On the icy moons of gas giants, there are tidal forces, but what is there to warm Pluto?

    5. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      How could all the experts have gotten it wrong all these years?

      Calm down. Maybe it was taken at sunset.

    6. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it red, though? This is just a comment on BBC, not on any of the NASA sites that I see. Also: http://www.moonphases.info/what-color-is-pluto.html

      Anyway, you know to not trust any color photos of space that was not from a ground-based telescope, without asking if it is "true" color, right? Usually colors are adjusted for scientific utility, or for making pretty pictures... they don't waste money on taking cameras adjusted to colors like the one on your phone.

    7. Re:photo too blurry by reverseengineer · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you do an image search, nearly half of the artist renderings still depict Pluto as blue-grey in color. I think the reasoning was that the planet was thought to be largely covered in methane ice, which has that color. And they were right about the ice, but UV radiation can initiate reactions in methane and diatomic nitrogen to produce a mix of simple hydrocarbons and nitriles, similar to the orange-brown haze that shrouds Titan, just on a much less dramatic scale.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
    8. Re:photo too blurry by Gavagai80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Since Pluto-Charon is essentially a double planet, I'd expect the tidal forces to be significant. Of course nothing with keep anything from freezing on the surface, just deep inside.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    9. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoops, there's been advancement and progress. Better start your crusade up again to deny it all.

    10. Re:photo too blurry by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It might be an ocean of liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen freezes at about -430F (around -260 C for foreigners), which sounds like it could be about in the ballpark.

    11. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      bah, just give the photos to the pros on csi and they'll have them blown up to high-res poster size before the commercial break ends.

    12. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get help, QA. Seriously.

    13. Re:photo too blurry by MrKaos · · Score: 2

      Every depiction I've seen of it indicates blue. How could all the experts have gotten it wrong all these years?

      Doppler shift. All the jokes about it's manhood, if it is or isn't a planet, got it down spectrum.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    14. Re:photo too blurry by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Funny

      What use does the average person have forÂanyÂphoto of outer space objects?

      Are you joking? NASA probably creates more desktop background images for our computers than any other single entity. ;)

    15. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What use does the average person have for any photo of outer space objects?

      If you want to use the publics' tax money for this stuff, you better keep them on your side. Life is more important right now, than some oversized asteroid utterly irrelevant to real lives.

    16. Re:photo too blurry by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      So what was thought to be a blue planet is actually slightly reddish? Wouldn’t it be cooler if we could say the New Horizons Probe is travelling so fast it’s encountering the Doppler Effect :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    17. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be a serious problem if that were the case. Red-shifting occurs when the object and the observer are moving away from each other.

    18. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      People around here seem to vastly overstate the physical significance of being a "double planet." You could just plug in known values into the equation for tidal acceleration: 2*G*(radius of body)*(mass of other body)/(distance between bodies)^3. You'll get that the tidal acceleration on Pluto is about ten times that of the Moon on Earth, but about one 200th of that of Jupiter on Ganymede, or one 2000th of that of Jupiter on Io.

      It only indirectly cares about the relative size of the bodies, from the radius of the target which would be the one-third power of the target mass if assuming some density. What matters most is the distance between the bodies, due to that cube, and in case of Jupiter, that the mass is just so much larger. If you stuck Charon at the same orbital distance from the Earth, the Earth would experience more tidal forces due to its size even though the moon would be much smaller (with a barycenter just 4 km from Earth's center).

      This goes doubly so if you are trying to use the crummy barycenter definition of a double planet, as you could move the Moon further from the Earth until the Earth-Moon barycenter is above the surface of the Earth, while at the same time decreasing the tidal forces.

    19. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, most descriptions of it I've seen described it as some possible combination of red, orange or yellow. This goes as far back to when I was a kid doing a report in elementary school 30 some years and needed grey and yellow paint to make a poster thing. But maybe I just paid more attention to the written descriptions and speculations than the artist making renditions did. But by the point of making rough maps of Pluto using the variation of light intensity from it spinning, as seen by Hubble, the maps of it have also been reddish-orange.

    20. Re:photo too blurry by rwise2112 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is it red, though?

      Besides, I'm pretty sure it's white and gold.

      --

      "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
    21. Re:photo too blurry by pla · · Score: 2

      What use does the average person have for any photo of outer space objects?

      What use does the average person have for photos of their trip to the Grand Canyon? For that matter, what use does the average person have for any space exploration (as distinct from the more practical application of communication satellites)?

      Humans interact with our world in a very vision-centric manner. It "means" more to us to see cool high-res color photos of some distant astronomical object than "knowing" the far more useful data about the makeup of its atmosphere.

      And like it or not, that mean NASA gets more funding for cool pictures than for doing hard science. People care far, far more about the Mars rovers because they empathize with those plucky little robots still carrying on despite adversity (and sending back pictures to prove it), than because they fulfilled their primary mission objectives.

    22. Re:photo too blurry by Convector · · Score: 2

      Tidal dissipation occurs when the tidal forces vary with time, generally due to the orbit of the secondary being eccentric. That brings it alternately closer to and farther from the primary, stretching and squeezing the interior.

      However, the orbit of Charon about Pluto is circular (Buie et al., 2012), so the tidal bulge is constant. There's no time-varying deformation and no dissipation.

    23. Re:photo too blurry by rilian4 · · Score: 1

      Someone should compile as many "Artist's conceptions" of Pluto as are out there and compare w/ the later pics coming this summer. I want to know if any of those artists was on the right track. I've never seen a conceptual drawing of pluto that had a reddish tint to it...As you say...kind of mind blowing!

      --

      ...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.
    24. Re:photo too blurry by hackertourist · · Score: 1

      At first glance, it would seem that a circular orbit can still lead to varying tidal forces. The only requirement is that the planet is not tidally locked to the moon (i.e. the planet's rotation is not in sync with the moon's orbit). Or am I overlooking something?

    25. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pluto and Charon are tidally locked though. In general you are correct.

    26. Re:photo too blurry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An active core? Or has NASA already ruled out that possibility?

    27. Re:photo too blurry by cusco · · Score: 1

      The first space probes were not supposed to carry cameras because it was thought that there would be little useful data returned from the visuals. Fortunately boosters and transmitters had sufficient extra capacity to add cameras, and the project scientists were quickly shown to be wrong.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    28. Re:photo too blurry by cusco · · Score: 1

      The other moons are also comparatively large and fairly close, adding more tidal flexing.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    29. Re:photo too blurry by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      If you think the average person has a desktop background that differs from stock, let alone a space-themed background, then there's a good chance your sample size is far, far too small.

      Far too small.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    30. Re:photo too blurry by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Most non-nerds are not going to put such images on their desktop background. For one, they risk being labelled a "nerd".

      But even non-nerds should be wowed by images such as this sponge-like moon (Hyperion):

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

      It's has that WTF look. Same with Io, the Pizza Moon. If you put the Pizza Moon on your desktop, then you can at least claim it's a specialized Italian dish if somebody accuses you of being a nerd.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    31. Re:photo too blurry by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Except this is /. The average person does not come here. That's why I stated "our" desktops and not "everyone's" desktop.

    32. Re:photo too blurry by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Most non-nerds are not going to put such images on their desktop background. For one, they risk being labelled a "nerd".

      The 1980's are over. Being a nerd doesn't carry the same stigma it once did. I remember seeing a commercial for rice cakes, or something, ten or so years ago where the actor in it listed all of the things she was/trying to be. Mother, wife, blah, blah, and ended with "wanna be computer nerd"

      The television show, The Big Bang Theory, is pulling in 15 to 20 million viewers per episode.

      So, no, I don't think too many people are worried about it. Hell, back when I had enough free time to worry about what my background was, I always had people comment on how cool the images from Hubble looked as my background.

      Regardless, my original comment was meant as a joke.

    33. Re:photo too blurry by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      And in Big Bang, the audience is laughing their south ends off at how socially awkward the nerds are. Clowns can be popular, but that doesn't mean you'd PERSONALLY like to hang around clowns.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    34. Re:photo too blurry by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      People don't just watch that show because of that. They can go to their own IT department to witness it on any given day. 20-30 years ago that show wouldn't have been green lighted, and rightly so. It would have bombed because most people would have been afraid of being caught watching it.

      Clowns are creepy has hell. No one would want to hang out with them.

    35. Re:photo too blurry by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they are standing in line to visit the IT department. I believe the Clown Department would have more visitors. Clowns usually have people skills.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. Re:But what about the most important question... by Chewbacon · · Score: 1

    Urectum!!!

    --
    Chewbacon
    The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
  3. You should have seen it... by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Ah, you should have seen it, that old planet. The second sun would rise in the south, the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver. When they caught the light every morning, they lit the forest on fire.

    1. Re: You should have seen it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, it's ages since we've seen our planet. It's quite like Earth, but at night the sky is a burned orange, and the leaves on the trees are bright silver.

  4. Wow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't know potatoes could survive in open space for three years.

  5. Re:But what about the most important question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What does Uranus smell like?

    Your mouth.

  6. Ok I'll say it by lefthand2776 · · Score: 1

    ENHANCE!

  7. Oooh, Ahhh, by Greyfox · · Score: 1

    Looks like it has a little schmootz on the lens, there.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Oooh, Ahhh, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God left his fingers on the lens again?

    2. Re:Oooh, Ahhh, by NMBob · · Score: 2

      If God is a "Her" how did Mary get pregnant with Jesus?

    3. Re:Oooh, Ahhh, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Sacred Turkey Baster of Antioch

  8. Re:But what about the most important question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Between the methane and hydrogen sulfide it smells like cow farts and death

  9. A Planetoidary System? by Whiteox · · Score: 1

    Alex Stern quote: "This is a real moment in time for you to watch us turn a point of light into a planet."

    So some now believe that Pluto is a planet? With 5 moons?? OMG! What's happening?

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
  10. I thought Pluto was violet-colored. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks for dispelling my ignorance. Nice work.

  11. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The JPEG is a little over-processed, but to transmit in RAW format would take 1000+ years ...

    1. Re:Nice by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

      If they knew the exact position, then just send the raw pixels for just the target area rather than an entire camera image. I'd guess the two bodies take up only about 25 x 25 pixels for that image. But I don't know the details of their compression and processing. I've read elsewhere that Pluto is roughly 5 pixels across at this time.

      An interesting side fact is that they'll take a few good pre-encounter images and it will be the last images sent for roughly a month because the probe is not designed to transmit while aiming its instruments (to save money; contrast with Voyagers).

      It will record everything during the fly-by for later playback. But, if it smashes into something orbiting near Pluto, the pre-encounter set may be the last images we get. Being it has at least 5 moons, there may be related debris orbiting.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Nice by necro81 · · Score: 5, Informative

      the probe is not designed to transmit while aiming its instruments (to save money; contrast with Voyagers)

      Voyager has most of its instruments, including the cameras, on a movable platform. This allowed the positioning of the spacecraft and its high-gain antenna (the dish) to be decoupled from the positioning of the sensors. That made it very versatile and capable but, as you mentioned, more expensive. It also increases technical risk. What if the scanning platform jams up? (Some instruments could end up forever pointed back at the spacecraft! There are only so many multi-spectral selfies you would ever want to have.)

      New Horzions is, for all intents and purposes, a single solid body. For 98% of its operational life, it's spin stabilized with its dish pointed squarely back towards Earth. That won't suffice for the intensive observations it was built for, so it will stop spinning and tilt itself this way and that to point its sensors at Pluto during its close encounter. Of course, when it is tilting this way and that, it is no longer pointing its main dish at Earth, so there can't be substantial communications. There is still the low-gain antenna, which is much less directional, which will allow for continuous commanding and telemetry, but has too little bandwidth for much science data to be beamed back. (more info here)

    3. Re:Nice by TheCarp · · Score: 1

      > There are only so many multi-spectral selfies you would ever want to have

      No way, selfies are awesome, they should fix the sensors back at the craft and put the communications on a movable platform.... and call it the Tourist.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    4. Re:Nice by rgbatduke · · Score: 1

      Continuous commanding and telemetry with a slight delay...

      rgb

      --
      Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
  12. Charon Relay? by Pausanias · · Score: 1

    Sorry guys, Charon already looks too big to be a mass relay. Mass relays are about 15km in size, here as far as I can tell Charon is about half the size of pluto or 600km. It is also too round. It also doesn't seem to be blue enough. I hate to break it to you but our dreams of interstellar travel are going to have to wait a few more years.

    1. Re:Charon Relay? by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

      Just scan and probe it then get the damn eezo before the ships find you.

  13. Darlings by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Awww, dwarf planets are sooo cute!

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Darlings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I say Pluto is still a planet. A mickey-mouse planet, but a planet nonetheless.

  14. Far better than Hubble? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Did not see the original and how have been interpolated, but according to the mission timeline the "better than hubble" event is scheduled around 5th of may.

    1. Re:Far better than Hubble? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's a good Hubble picture. It even looks in color.

  15. Memory lost at NASA? by Anonyme+Connard · · Score: 0

    "New Horizons has traveled a longer time and farther away - more than nine years and three billion miles - than any space mission in history".

    What about Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2?

    1. Re:Memory lost at NASA? by ColaMan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Memory lost at NASA? How about you read the end of that sentence that you carefully pasted into your post.

      "....to reach its primary target."

      All the other probes primary targets were the gas giants.

      --

      You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
      There is a lot of hype here.
    2. Re:Memory lost at NASA? by scottrocket · · Score: 1

      Yeah I almost made the same mistake as the OP, I was reading so fast - had to re-read, as I shook my head.

    3. Re:Memory lost at NASA? by Anonyme+Connard · · Score: 2

      Rosetta travelled 10 years to reach its primary target, comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

      (but you are right, I missed the end of the sentence)

    4. Re:Memory lost at NASA? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Your point is valid, but it's a bit like claiming that I have biked farther and for more time than any other person on the planet who lives in my apartment. It's true, but it's also sort of stupid to make such a narrowly tailored claim.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  16. *Squint* by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Enhance!

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:*Squint* by doctor_subtilis · · Score: 1

      Where's CSI when you need 'em.

    2. Re:*Squint* by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      They can only be summoned by human sacrifice. Preferably on a golf course or in an abandoned warehouse.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  17. We should all aim for Pluto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That way, when the guy in the back says, Why not Mars instead? everybody will go, That certainly sounds more do-able and can break for lunch

  18. Thanks for the info. by franciscoeduca · · Score: 0

    Thanks you, have a nice day :) http://www.educa.net/curso/pri...

  19. You do realize methane is odorless, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They add the stinky stuff to it so you know when to run.

    1. Re:You do realize methane is odorless, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And since hydrogen sulfide is rather toxic and corrosive they don't add it to "natural" gas either. That thing you're smelling to warn you of a gas leak is Mercaptan that is added in concentrations of parts per billion.

  20. What about the little engine that could? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons has traveled a longer time and farther away - more than nine years and three billion miles ..."

    What about Voyager? Or at they calculating some wide arcs that New Horizons made through the solar system?