Archivo: First Pluto sighting from New Horizons

Descripción: The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons acquired images of the Pluto field three days apart in late September 2006, in order to see Pluto's motion against a dense background of stars. LORRI took three frames at 1-second exposures on both Sept. 21 and Sept. 24, from a distance of about 4.2 billion kilometers. Because it moved along its predicted path, Pluto was detected in all six images. These images are displayed using false-color to represent different intensities: the lowest intensity level is black, different shades of red mark intermediate intensities, and the highest intensity is white. The images appear pixelated because they were obtained in a mode that compensates for the drift in spacecraft pointing over long exposure times. LORRI also made these observations before operators uploaded new flight-control software in October; the upgraded software package includes an optical navigation capability that will make LORRI approximately three times more sensitive still than for these Pluto observations.
Título: First Pluto sighting from New Horizons
Créditos: Este archivo fue catalogado por un de los centros de la Administración Nacional de Aeronáutica y del Espacio (NASA) de los Estados Unidos de Américabajo el identificador de foto: PIA09234.
Autor(a): NASA
Términos de Uso: Dominio Público
Licencia: Dominio Público
¿Se exige la atribución?: No