ELY: According to hazard-search images taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft and analyzed by its earthbound team, it appears that the path toward the planet is clear.
Taken between May 11 and 12, the first set of images shows observations made 47 million miles away, using the New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager. Of these observations, 144 pictures were taken by LORRI at 10-second exposures each, all designed to facilitate a high-sensitivity search for faint dust sheets, rings or satellites in Pluto’s system.
The spacecraft’s mission team carefully studied all indications of debris or dust that could pose a threat to New Horizons — because a particle as small as a grain of rice could produce a catastrophic outcome.
The New Horizons photographs were sent to Earth May 12 through 15 and were processed and analyzed by May 18. According to the images, the spacecraft detected Pluto and all of the planet’s five known moons — but no new moons, rings or other hazards were revealed.
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