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Big Discovery from NASA’s New Horizons; Pluto is Biggest Kuiper Belt Body
A portrait from the final approach. Pluto and Charon display striking color and brightness contrast in this composite image from July 11, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images colorized with Ralph data collected from the last rotation of Pluto. Color data being returned by the spacecraft now will update these images, bringing color contrast into sharper focus. Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI
Plutophiles everywhere rejoice. On the eve of history’s first ever up close flyby of mysterious Pluto on Tuesday morning July 14 making the first detailed scientific observations, NASA’s New Horizons has made a big discovery about one of the most basic questions regarding distant Pluto. How big is it?
Measurements by New Horizons gathered just in the past few days as the spacecraft barrels towards the Pluto planetary system now confirm that Pluto is indeed the biggest object in the vast region beyond the orbit of Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt.
Pluto is thus the undisputed King of the Kuiper Belt!(…)
Read the rest of Big Discovery from NASA’s New Horizons; Pluto is Biggest Kuiper Belt Body (840 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2015. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: 4 dark spots on Pluto, Alan Stern, Charon, Clyde Tombaugh, Eris, Grand Canyon of Charon, Hydra, kuiper belt, NASA, Neptune, New Horizons, Pluto, pluto charon, pluto flyby, styx
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Source: http://www.universetoday.com/121348/big-discovery-from-nasas-new-horizons-pluto-is-biggest-kuiper-belt-body/
