An expected “call home” in the middle of the night yesterday after 22 hours Argentina, was the confirmation of the successful completion of the New Horizons mission. The NASA spacecraft had managed to approach Pluto to 8.49, but still had to survive the encounter. He did and since then has already sent information to Earth.
Although still lacking to start interpreting the data, NASA confirmed from the official Twitter account that the probe is operating and transmitting to the antenna Canberra Deep Space Network (DSN by the acronym Deep Space Network). This international network of radio antennas that serve as support interplanetary spacecraft missions.
To retrieve all the material that New Horizons recovered within hours of its historic flyby will require 16 months. “For years we plan these jacks, and now must be on the probe. We’ll just have to wait a while to recover,” said Cathy enthusiastically Olkin, deputy director of the project.
However, ship and allowed us to have a much deeper that we had about Pluto, the dwarf planet located within the confines of the solar system knowledge. First, New Horizons sent more detailed picture of the world, which contrasts sharply with the previous one, taken by Hubble in 1996.
In the flyby, NASA mission could also confirm the existence of polar ice and found Pluto escaping nitrogen atmosphere. He contributed another very important fact: the dwarf planet was the greatest of what was believed end. Discovered in 1930, Pluto was demoted to that category in 2006.
What else will reveal? Scientists can see the sunrise and sunset on the back -inexplorada- Pluto; will create a complete picture of the star and five satellites; and will make a study of the dust in the outer Solar System and the atmosphere around the dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
What is known so far Pluto probably fit in a couple of pages, said Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission. Instead, the data sent New Horizons if all goes well-will enable text writing books about this mysterious whole celestial body.
No comments:
Post a Comment