EPSC Abstracts Vol. 11, EPSC2017-140, 2017 European Planetary Science Congress 2017 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2017 Results from the New Horizons encounter with Pluto C. B. Olkin (1), S. A. Stern (1), J. R. Spencer (1), H. A. Weaver (2), L. A. Young (1), K. Ennico (3) and the New Horizons Team (1) Southwest Research Institute, Colorado, USA, (2) Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Maryland, USA (3) NASA Ames Research Center, California, USA (
[email protected]) Abstract Hydra) and the various processes that would darken those surfaces over time [5]. In July 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft flew through the Pluto system providing high spatial resolution panchromatic and color visible light imaging, near-infrared composition mapping spectroscopy, UV airglow measurements, UV solar and radio uplink occultations for atmospheric sounding, and in situ plasma and dust measurements that have transformed our understanding of Pluto and its moons [1]. Results from the science investigations focusing on geology, surface composition and atmospheric studies of Pluto and its largest satellite Charon will be presented. We also describe the New Horizons extended mission. 1. Geology and Size Highlights from the geology investigation of Pluto Figure 1: The glacial ices of Sputnik Planitia. The include the discovery of a unexpected diversity of cellular pattern is a surface expression of mobile lid geomorpholgies across the surface, the discovery of a convection. The boundaries of the cells are troughs. deep basin (informally known as Sputnik Planitia) Despite it’s size of ~900,000 km2, there are no containing glacial ices undergoing mobile-lid identified craters across Sputnik Planitia.