* Astronomy

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RE: New Horizons mission

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Scientists have released their latest map of Pluto, using images from the inbound New Horizons spacecraft.
It unwraps the visible parts of the sphere on to a flat projection, giving another view of the features that have started to emerge in recent days.
Evident are the light and dark patches at the equator, including one long dark band being dubbed "the whale".
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NASA to Hold Media Call Today to Discuss New Horizons Mission Plans Following Spacecraft Anomaly

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New Horizons probe refines Pluto flyby path

The American New Horizons spacecraft has made its last planned targeting manoeuvre as it bears down on Pluto.
The probe is due to scream past the dwarf world on 14 July at almost 14km/s and at an altitude of just 12,500km.
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NASA's New Horizons Mission Update from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL)

Spoiler

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Dwarf planet Pluto's dark and light terrains

The latest pictures, acquired by the probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), show distinct surface regions - some bright, some dark.
Quite what they represent is anyone's guess just at the moment, but as New Horizons bears down on Pluto, these features will only get clearer.
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NASA Announces Television Coverage, Media Activities for Pluto Flyby

NASA is inviting media to cover New Horizons' historic Pluto flyby in mid-July, including the spacecraft's closest approach to Pluto on July 14, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, site of the mission operations centre.
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Mission Updates: Countdown to Pluto - June 9, 2015

Spoiler

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NASA Social Media Conducts Web Chat on New Horizons Pluto Mission at the Applied Physics Laboratory

Spoiler

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Title: Possible scenarios that the New Horizons spacecraft may find in its close encounter with Pluto
Author: Hector Javier Durand-Manterola, Hector Perez-de-Tejada

Next year, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft will have a close encounter with Pluto. In the present study we discuss some possibilities regarding what the spacecraft may encounter during its approach to Pluto. Among them we should include: the presence of geological activity due to heat generated by tides; the unlikely presence of an intrinsic magnetic field; the possibility of a plasmasphere and a plasmapause; the position of an ionopause; the existence of an ionospheric trans-terminator flow similar to that at Venus and Mars; and the presence of a Magnus force that produces a deflection of Pluto plasma wake. This deflection oscillates up and down in its orbit around the sun.

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