New Horizons: Awaiting New Results on Pluto's Atmosphere

Artist's impression of Pluto, with its wispy atmosphere.

Data from New Horizons' Alice ultraviolet spectrograph will answer a full range of questions about the composition and structure of that atmosphere.

What is Pluto's atmosphere like? It seems like I've been wondering about that for decades!

We've known so little for so long about Pluto's atmosphere, other than it's low-pressure, made mostly of molecular nitrogen (with a little methane and carbon monoxide mixed in) and may be quite extended, it's nice to realise that we'll know a whole lot more after New Horizons visits in summer 2015.

Alice UV spectrograph

My professional interests on New Horizons lie with Pluto's upper atmosphere, what it's made of, how it interacts with space, and how it is processed by sunlight into different gases and aerosols.

A problem in planning atmospheric observations for New Horizons during the flyby is that we really don't know what to expect.

Only a few models have been made that try to predict the composition of Pluto's atmosphere, and they don't agree very much with each other because of the many present uncertainties.

So our plans generally include a lot of survey-type observations, where we try not to assume too much about what we will detect, but are ready for anything.

The best example of this is the Pluto solar occultation observation.

Just Joking!

The Alice ultraviolet spectrograph will watch the Sun set (and then rise again) as New Horizons flies through Pluto's shadow, about an hour after closest approach.

Watching how the different colours of sunlight fade (and then return) as New Horizons enters (and leaves) the shadow will tell us nearly all we could ask for about composition (all gases have unique absorption signatures at the ultraviolet wavelengths covered by Alice) and structure (how those the absorption features vary with altitude will tell us about temperatures, escape rates and possibly about dynamics and clouds).

When the New Horizons data start coming down, these are the data I'll be waiting for the most!

JAXA: Japan's robot astronaut awaiting 'compatriot' spaceman

This picture received from the Kibo Robot Project on November 6, 2013 shows the humanoid robot "Kirobo" inside the International Space Station 

The world's first robot astronaut is pining for a conversation partner as he waits for Japanese spaceman Koichi Wakata aboard the International Space Station.

"Mr. Wakata, are you not here yet? I really want to see you soon," the pint-sized android said in a message released by its project team in Japan Wednesday.

The wide-eyed and bootie-wearing "Kirobo"—roughly the size of a chihuahua— left Earth on a cargo-carrying rocket and reached the space station on August 10.

"Good morning to every one of you people on Earth. I am robot astronaut Kirobo. I am the world's first talking robot astronaut. Nice to meet you," the automaton said in Japanese.

Wakata along with Mikhail Tyurin of Russia and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio will be aboard the Soyuz-FG rocket which will set off from Kazakhstan at 0414 GMT Thursday for a six-hour journey to the ISS.

Kirobo, which stands just 34 centimetres (13.4 inches) tall and weighs about one kilogram (2.2 pounds), is programmed to communicate in Japanese and keep records of its conversations with Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to command the ISS.

"My dream is to see human beings and robots live together as friends," the robot added. "I will talk to you a lot from space so please listen to my chats."


The humanoid was created jointly by advertising firm Dentsu, the University of Tokyo, robot developer Robo Garage and Toyota.

The robot is part of a study aimed at seeing how a non-human companion can provide emotional support for people isolated over long periods.