A perfect play, “a real home run.” Defines the Pluto mission , Alan Stern, the Director of the mission New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.
The Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland was commissioned to design, build and operate the mission for NASA , but the SwRI is in charge of the team . scientific, cargo operations and concentration data
The wait was long: nine and a half since the unmanned probe was launched in Cape Canaveral in 2006. Finally on Tuesday July 14 was He reached one of the main objectives of this mission when he managed to fly over Pluto at a distance similar to that between New York and Bombay to collect a series of data that seek to dispel doubts about the characteristics of this dwarf planet and its moons.
During those years the scientists participating in the project expectations about what can be found at the furthest point never explored by man in space was created.
Today the treasure begins to be counted and results exceeded expectations. The first sampling of the scientific data obtained by the probe begins to be received. One of the first images to circumnavigate the world was a picture where you can see a heart shape on the surface of Pluto.
Precisely on the basis of this recorded by the probe area is the equatorial region of the planet. There a chain of peaks that stand more than three kilometers and covering about 1% of its total area is displayed. It is thought that this site could be geologically active today
Specialists as Jeff Moore geophysical equipment and image projections in the Ames Research Center of NASA in Moffett Field, Calif.; They consider that it is likely that Pluto mountains have formed less than 100 million years ago, making this area one of the youngest that have been observed in space history. The estimate of the age of these icy mountains is also based on the absence of craters in the area.
The rest of the surface of Pluto itself has craters formed most likely by space debris that have touched the surface planet through billions of years.
According to Moore considerations, it appears that this area of the world has had recent geological activity, which has given a “lifting effect” has disappeared traces of these impacts and has caused the mountain ranges.
Although much of the surface of Pluto is icy methane and nitrogen, these materials are not strong enough to build the mountains. According to experts, a powerful impetus to build would be needed, in addition to structuring a more rigid component.
The icy moons of giant planets are able to generate these demontañas chains by gravitational interactions with a planetary body more large, it does not exist in the case of Pluto. This made him think SwRI specialists in other powerful geological detonators that could influence not only in shaping the surface of the celestial body, but other frozen worlds. The possibilities for study in this area are extrapolated to the entire solar system.
The information gathered on its satellites also begins to generate interesting conclusions. Scientists expect to find on Charon, the principal of its five moons, a large number of craters, but instead they found a young land with varied features.
On a surface of about thousand kilometers is a stretch of cliffs, valleys and even a canyon about 10 kilometers deep. This landscape reveals a fracture on the crust, produced by geological activity inside.
On the other hand, Ralph data, one of the seven instruments carrying the New Horizons probe has revealed that Hydra, one of its moons, but smaller, could be completely covered with frozen water. Confirms its irregular size, but its dimensions are even lower than what was thought: 43×33 kilometers
Challenges
To Dr. Alejandro Farah, the Institute of Astronomy at UNAM, understand the morphology of all celestial bodies always opens space for new questions.
“Answering them is part of scientific developments and knowledge. There are several expectations that remain present. The formation and evolution of the solar system are a couple of them. More information on these issues is adding to conocimientode new solar systems that have been discovered in the past two decades. All this will understand, directly and indirectly, how the universe works, the question that has been persecuted for centuries, “says the specialist.
The data transmission continues and it is estimated that this work will last for more a year, as the probe has limited capacity to monitor and send information simultaneously; in addition to several conditions must be synchronized as your antenna is located in the direction of Earth.
However, the work of evidence device is in perfect condition to continue their journey. Far away Pluto and is expected to arrive around 2017 to meet an object of Kuiper Belt , which together with the Oort cloud are the two great reservoirs of primordial material, such as comets .
For the overflight of the probe New Horizons Pluto scientific community is just the beginning of a new era in space research.
The next goal is the exploration of the Third Zone called the Solar System, which is beyond the regions of rocky planets and gas formed, and concentrated dwarf planets and other celestial bodies frozen by the low influence of the sun.
The Belt Kuiper is a key element in this new phase of research, because it harbors many hidden for over 4000 years 600 million secrets. Dr. Farah stresses that many theories suggest that the Earth’s water came from comets.
“By studying them closely you will know how the process was generated. Although we have studied their orbits, it does not yet have the right to conclude interact gravitationally as “observations.
A particle size of a grain of rice could be the end of the mission, as the rate at which the spacecraft travels is so potent that any minimum obstacle could collapse it. Only the Voyager 1 and 2 probes have achieved greater speed, however the vast autonomous capacity has guided the ship on track almost a decade.
Scientists information now concentrate crumble obtained, as if opened after the holiday gifts, while the probe continues its path carrying among other things, part of the ashes of Clyde William Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto. Before dying at age 91, the scientist knew of the intentions of the NASA to undertake this long journey frigid New Horizons still promises new stories before missing, along with Tombaugh at infinity.
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