Uploaded July 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Those unbelievable of Pluto's surface we're starting to see? They're all thanks to LORRI. This is Pluto in a Minute.
LORRI is New Horizons' long-range imaging camera specially designed to deal with the fact that sunlight on Pluto is 1,000 times fainter than it is on Earth. This panchromatic CCD camera is basically a small telescope, 2 feet long with an 8.2-inch aperture that allows it to see things one million times fainter than the human eye can see. It also has an amazing capacity for high-resolution images; it can actually resolve about 230 feet per pixel.
Having this super high resolution camera on board had some pretty distinct advantages for the mission. Millions of miles away from Pluto, it could already see it as more than a point of light. And it's not just phenomenal imaging, LORRI is actually a phenomenal feat of engineering. PI of the instrument Andy Cheng says it's almost like magic.
Cheng and his team tried to create a camera to minimize stray light and build something such that the CCD wouldn't be affected by radiation in space. It really wasn't until New Horizons got to the Pluto system that the LORRI team realized they had built a pretty fantastic camera.
And we haven't seen all the fruits of their labours yet! There are still high resolution LORRI images on New Horizons waiting to be downlinked, images that will definitely tell the science team a little more about Pluto. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Pluto check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation online with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course come back here for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
Those unbelievable of Pluto's surface we're starting to see? They're all thanks to LORRI. This is Pluto in a Minute.
LORRI is New Horizons' long-range imaging camera specially designed to deal with the fact that sunlight on Pluto is 1,000 times fainter than it is on Earth. This panchromatic CCD camera is basically a small telescope, 2 feet long with an 8.2-inch aperture that allows it to see things one million times fainter than the human eye can see. It also has an amazing capacity for high-resolution images; it can actually resolve about 230 feet per pixel.
Having this super high resolution camera on board had some pretty distinct advantages for the mission. Millions of miles away from Pluto, it could already see it as more than a point of light. And it's not just phenomenal imaging, LORRI is actually a phenomenal feat of engineering. PI of the instrument Andy Cheng says it's almost like magic.
Cheng and his team tried to create a camera to minimize stray light and build something such that the CCD wouldn't be affected by radiation in space. It really wasn't until New Horizons got to the Pluto system that the LORRI team realized they had built a pretty fantastic camera.
And we haven't seen all the fruits of their labours yet! There are still high resolution LORRI images on New Horizons waiting to be downlinked, images that will definitely tell the science team a little more about Pluto. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Pluto check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation online with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course come back here for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
