The PI’s Perspective: Trip Report

New Horizons tripped up but recovered itself without a nasty spill last week. In his latest column, Principal Investigator Alan Stern describes how the spacecraft and its ground-control team expertly passed this in-flight “autopilot” system test.

For the full story, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php

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Featured Image: A Burst of Color

New Horizons captured a unique color view of Jupiter's moon Io with its Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on March 1, from a range of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The image shows the nighttime glow of the Tvashtar volcano and its plume rising 330 kilometers (200 miles) into sunlight above Io’s north pole.

The image was taken shortly before the complementary Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) photo of Io, which was released on March 13. The MVIC picture reveals the intense red of the glowing lava at the plume source and the contrasting blue of the fine dust particles in the plume, as well as more subtle colors on Io's sunlit crescent.
To see the image, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/032807.html

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Featured Image: Storm Spectra

Using light that can only be seen with infrared sensors, the LEISA component of the New Horizons Ralph instrument recently gathered images that show fine details on Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere.

For the images and additional information, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/033007.html

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Featured Image: Two Moons Meet Over Jupiter

A new color image from New Horizons – snapped two days after the spacecraft’s closest approach to Jupiter – shows the crescents of Jupiter’s moons Io and Europa. Io steals the show with a beautiful display of volcanic activity, including a look at the nearly 200-mile-high plume rising from the Tvashtar volcano.

For the image and caption, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/040207.html

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Featured Image: Capturing Callisto

The New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) snapped two images of Jupiter's outermost large moon, Callisto, as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter in late February. Taken nearly a day apart, the photos show the Jupiter-facing side of the crater-scarred moon under different illumination conditions.

For the full story and images, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/040507.html

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Featured Image: The Colors of Night

New Horizons was about an hour from its closest approach to Jupiter on February 28 when its sensitive color camera caught a glimpse of Io, with the night side of the volcanic moon bathed in “Jupiter light.” Click here for the image and caption http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/041607.html

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Pluto Mission News
April 25, 2007
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

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NASA Science Update to Discuss Data from Jupiter Flyby

A NASA Science Update at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 1, will discuss new views of the Jupiter system. The Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft is returning these images as it flies past the solar system's largest planet during the initial stages of a planned six-month encounter. The update, taking place in the NASA Headquarters auditorium in Washington, will air live on NASA Television and be streamed on the Web at www.nasa.gov.

New Horizons is using Jupiter's gravity to boost its speed toward the outer solar system while training its cameras and sensors on the giant planet and its moons.

Briefing participants are:

* Alan Stern, NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, and New Horizons principal investigator, Headquarters, Washington
* Jeff Moore, New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Science Team lead, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
* John Spencer, New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Science Team deputy lead, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.
* Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.

Reporters at participating NASA centers will be able to ask questions. For more information about NASA TV, streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.

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New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt of rocky, icy objects beyond. Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of NASA Headquarters, leads a mission team that includes the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, Ball Aerospace Corporation, the Boeing Company, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford University, KinetX, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, University of Colorado, the U.S. Department of Energy, and a number of other firms, NASA centers and university partners. For more information on the mission, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu.

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New Horizons Provides New Views of Jupiter

The New Horizons spacecraft has provided new data on the Jupiter system ­– stunning scientists with never-before-seen perspectives of the giant planet’s atmosphere, rings, moons and magnetosphere. These new views include the closest peek yet at the Earth-sized “Little Red Spot” storm churning materials through Jupiter’s cloud tops; detailed images of small satellites herding dust and boulders through Jupiter’s faint rings; and of volcanic eruptions and circular grooves on the planet’s largest moons.

For the full story, visit: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/050107.htm.

For the latest images, visit the New Horizons Mission Photos Gallery at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos.html.

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Catch the 'Passport to Pluto' Update on The Discovery Channel

Last year, "Passport to Pluto" introduced the world to the people preparing to launch the first spacecraft to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Catch the next installment of the adventure this weekend as the updated "Passport to Pluto" premieres on The Discovery Channel, Saturday (May 5) at 10 p.m. Eastern time. With new footage and interviews, the program features an inside look at the New Horizons team's fast-paced first months after launch and the excitement of the successful Jupiter flyby.

For a program description and more information, visit The Discovery Channel Web site at http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/special.html?paid=1.14361.117319.0.0.

You'll find the original "Passport to Pluto" on the New Horizons Web site at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/videos/passToPluto.php.

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Thread Closed - Pluto Mission News continued in main SETI Science forum.
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=35808

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