It does n’t look like much , but the figure above is the first color photograph taken of Pluto and Charon by theNew Horizons spacecraftas it heads for its flyby of the icy worlds in July .
Clear images of the brace are hard to follow by at this point , not only because New Horizons is still three months aside , but because this far from the Lord’s Day there is little light to meditate . Until now , NASA limit theimagesit hastakento grim and white , but at 115 million kilometers ( 71 million miles ) from the objective system of rules , it has used theRalph color imagerfor the first time .
The images taken in the steer - up are of more than symbolic note value . Unlike investigation toMars , Saturn , or evenCeres , New Horizons is not stop to orbit . Decelerating would be impractical for a craft traveling at more than 50,000 kph ( 31,000 miles per hour ) , particularly with Pluto ’s little sobriety — one - fifteenth that of Earth’s — to catch it . Consequently , it is essential to collect as much data as possible in the short sentence usable as New Horizons flies by .
for do that , New Horizons is program to focus on reflection during the close period of time , sending what it collects back at a more leisurely pace thereafter . The last thing commission control wants is to have to suspend operation to convert plan , in particular yield the four hours it takes for messages traveling at the speed of light to reach Pluto . therefore , the images collected on the approach are being used to be after the precise path the foxiness will take , culminate in a flyby 12,500 kilometers ( 7,750 miles ) from Pluto ’s open .
“ Our team has worked heavily to get to this point , and we eff we have just one blastoff to make this work,“said Alice Bowmanof Johns Hopkins University .
Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute ( SwRI ) suppose : " This is stark exploration ; we ’re perish to turn points of light into a satellite and a organisation of Moon before your eye ! "
Nevertheless , the focal point of involvement has shifted substantially since New Horizons was establish from Pluto towards its moons . For one thing , there are multiple moons to study . When the craft was approvedin 2001 , Charon was the only bang moon . Four more were discovered between 2005 and 2012 , as well as aquasi - satellite , temporarily trapped in orbit .
Moreover , as prison term goes by , Charon is becoming an increasingly interesting object , or as SwRI ’s Leslie Young put it , " Charon is a rising star topology in terms of scientific interestingness , and we ca n’t waitress to break it in contingent in July . ” The renewed aid on Charon culminated with the theory that it may once have had an hugger-mugger sea , suggestion of which may be revealed bycracks on its Earth’s surface .
