Pluto: So Far, All Clear

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So Far, All Clear: New Horizons Team Completes First Search for Pluto System Hazards

May 28, 2015

NASA’s New Horizons team has analyzed the first set of hazard-search images of the Pluto system taken by the approaching spacecraft itself – and so far, all looks clear for the spacecraft’s safe passage.

The observations were made May 11-12 from a range of 47 million miles (76 million kilometers) using the telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons. For these observations, LORRI was instructed to take 144 10-second exposures, designed to allow a highly sensitive search for faint satellites, rings or dust sheets in the system. The mission team is looking carefully for any indications of dust or debris that might threaten New Horizons before the spacecraft’s flight through the Pluto system on July 14; a particle as small as a grain of rice could be fatal.

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