What portion of the surface of Pluto and Charon will New Horizons map?

July 15, 2015 7:32 PM

For reasons perhaps best understood by wasting way too much time in Kerbal Space Program, the difference in fuel and cost between a flyby and an orbiter can be considerable. As such, NASA's New Horizons craft zipped through the Pluto system at considerable speed, before continuing out into the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt. Will the craft produce high-resolution maps of the complete surfaces of both Pluto and Charon, or will the flyby approach only allow for a portion of the surface of each body to be surveyed?
posted by sindark to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

Best answer: You can find all available information about the mission and see all the images as they arrive here: New Horizons complete coverage. Just remember that it's going to take around 16 months for all the data from just the flyby of Pluto/Charon to arrive here on Earth. I have to admit the data I've learned just from the live account was more than my brain could digest in one sitting. Just hearing the words "water ice" in relation to Pluto sent chills down my spine.

This promises to be a very interesting time for all scientific fields, not just planetology and celestial mechanics. The craft was aptly named to my way of thinking.
posted by schade at 8:20 PM on July 15, 2015

The high-resolution stuff will only cover part of it, because of the flyby approach. See this picture from July 11, which represents the best look we'll be getting at the far side of Pluto from this mission.
posted by Shmuel510 at 8:24 PM on July 15, 2015

Response by poster: I am personally looking forward to precise altimetry data from this double (dwarf) planet system. I foresee cool 3D printed renderings of the best-mapped parts of Pluto and its moons.
posted by sindark at 8:28 PM on July 15, 2015

On the night side of Pluto resolutions will be lower due partly to Charon-shine (sunlight reflected off of Charon) being of feeble strength; add to this that when New Horizons is on the night side it is for all intents looking directly into the sun which further degrades the images that will be taken. With that being said, some of the early images of canyons and mountains I have seen today are of quite high resolutions; better in fact than the 15 megapixel camera on my phone can produce
posted by schade at 8:33 PM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Having Pluto directly in front of the Sun will give us info about Pluto's atmosphere, perhaps more enlightening than more images of it's surface as NH moves further away.
posted by artdrectr at 11:13 PM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]