Abstract
The space probe “New Horizons” was launched on 19th of January 2006 in order to study Pluto and its moons. Spacecraft performed close fly-by to Pluto on 14th of July 2015 and obtained the most detailed images of Pluto and its moon until this moment. At the same time, observation obtained by the ground-based telescopes may also be helpful for the research of such distant system. Thereby, the Laboratory of observational astrometry of Pulkovo Observatory of RAS made a decision to reprocess observations obtained during last decade. More than 350 positional observations of Pluto–Charon system were carried out with the mirror astrograph ZA-320M at Pulkovo and Maksutov telescope MTM-500M near Kislovodsk. These observations were processed by means of software system APEX-II developed in Pulkovo observatory and numerical simulations were performed to calculate the differences between positions of photocenter and barycenter of Pluto–Charon system.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have