冥王星的真实色泽

冥王星的真实色泽

2024年1月28日 Pluto in True Color Image Credit: NASA, JHU APL, SwRI; Processing: Alex Parker Explanation: What color is Pluto, really? It took some effort to figure out. Even given all of the images sent back to Earth when the robotic New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto in 2015, processing these multi-spectral frames to approximate what the human eye would see was challenging. The result featured here, released three years after the raw data was acquired by New Horizons, is the highest resolution true color image of Pluto ever taken. Visible in the image is the light-colored, heart-shaped, Tombaugh Regio, with the unexpectedly smooth Sputnik Planitia, made of frozen nitrogen, filling its western lobe. New Horizons found the dwarf planet to have a surprisingly complex surface…

冥王星的北部

冥王星的北部

2023年8月18日 Northern Pluto Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute Explanation: Gaze across the frozen canyons of northern Pluto in this contrast enhanced color scene. The image data used to construct it was acquired in July 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft as it made the first reconnaissance flight through the remote Pluto system six billion kilometers from the Sun. Now known as Lowell Regio, the region was named for Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory. Also famous for his speculation that there were canals on Mars, Lowell started the search that ultimately led to Pluto’s discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. In this frame Pluto’s North Pole is above and left of center. The pale bluish floor of the broad canyon…

冥卫一

冥卫一

2023年6月3日 Charon: Moon of Pluto Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier high-resolution view. The portrait of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, was captured by New Horizons near the spacecraft’s closest approach on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon’s surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon’s Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to separate smooth southern plains from varied northern terrain. Charon is 1,214 kilometers (754 miles) across….