New Horizons Mission Practices Telescopic Imager on Pluto’s Twin

This summer, the New Horizons spacecraft was awoken for its annual systems checkout, and took the opportunity to exercise the long range camera by snapping pictures of Neptune, which at the time, was 3.5 billion km (2.15 billion miles) away. The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) snapped several photos of the gas giant, but Neptune [...]

New Horizons image of Neptune and its largest moon, Triton. Credit: NASAThis summer, the New Horizons spacecraft was awoken for its annual systems checkout, and took the opportunity to exercise the long range camera by snapping pictures of Neptune, which at the time, was 3.5 billion km (2.15 billion miles) away. The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) snapped several photos of the gas giant, but Neptune was not alone! The moon Triton made a cameo appearance. And the New Horizons team said that since Triton is often called Pluto’s “twin” it was perfect target practice for imaging its ultimate target, Pluto.This image gets us excited for 2015 when New Horizons will approach and make the closest flyby ever of Pluto. (...)Read the rest of New Horizons Mission Practices Telescopic Imager on Pluto’s Twin (240 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No ...