COPY-Astronomer’s ashes nearing icy world he discovered: Pluto

That same year, the New Horizons mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a journey of almost 10 years and 4.8 billion kilometers, becoming the first spacecraft to explore this far-away frontier.

“It’s weird that they’re spaced so regularly”, said New Horizon scientist Curt Niebur in a statement.

The pictures, taken on June 25 and 27, show two faces of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, in true color; this is how the duo would appear to a human along for the ride.

Dave Dooling, New Mexico Museum of Space History education director, will present some early highlights of the mission at “New Horizons Has Arrived!” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, 411 N. Main St.

The best views are expected Monday through Thursday of next week, said principal investigator Alan Stern.

In 1992, astronomers discovered there were other dwarf planets, prompting the global Astronomical Union to reconsider its definition of planet. Though Pluto orbits the Sun and has sufficient mass to have formed into a round globe, it had insufficient gravitational muscle to clear its neighborhood.

The New Horizons gets closer to Pluto, and the dwarf planet becomes more and puzzling.

But it’s time to say goodbye to the “dark side” of Pluto – the side that won’t be facing the camera when New Horizons whizzes past.

New Horizons is zooming towards the dwarf planet and will pass by at just 12,500km above the planet’s surface on July 14, taking lots of close-up photos on the way that scientists hope will help shed some light on the distant planet.

The high-gain antenna used to connect the robotic probe with mission managers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory was tested at the OSU ElectroScience Laboratory in 2004 and 2005. She died in Las Cruces in 2012 at the age of 99. As designed for such an occurrence, New Horizons switched to its back-up computer and went into “Safe Mode”. Annette says in a NASA interview posted online. “The New Mexico Legislature made the same declaration in 2007, shortly after Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet”, said Cathy Harper, NMMSH’s public relations and marketing director. The spacecraft also has a Twitter account and a YouTube channel.

Henry Throop, a member of the spacecraft team, had said that he believed the mission will be successful in what is being held as humanity’s first exploration to Pluto.

It may be our last good look at the spots, but we could still learn more about them: NASA is waiting for the transmission of the last batch of color data taken for the dark side of Pluto, which will allow them to create a more nuanced, dynamic image to study.

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