Initial results from the New Horizons exploration of 2014 MU, a small Kuiper Belt object.

The Kuiper Belt is a distant region of the outer Solar System. On 1 January 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew close to (486958) 2014 MU, a cold classical Kuiper Belt object approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. Such objects have never been substantially heated by the Sun and are therefore well preserved since their formation.

The atmosphere of Pluto as observed by New Horizons.

Observations made during the New Horizons flyby provide a detailed snapshot of the current state of Pluto's atmosphere. Whereas the lower atmosphere (at altitudes of less than 200 kilometers) is consistent with ground-based stellar occultations, the upper atmosphere is much colder and more compact than indicated by pre-encounter models. Molecular nitrogen (N2) dominates the atmosphere (at altitudes of less than 1800 kilometers or so), whereas methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), ethylene (C2H4), and ethane (C2H6) are abundant minor species and likely feed the production of an extensive haze that encompasses Pluto.

The Pluto system: Initial results from its exploration by New Horizons.

The Pluto system was recently explored by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, making closest approach on 14 July 2015. Pluto's surface displays diverse landforms, terrain ages, albedos, colors, and composition gradients. Evidence is found for a water-ice crust, geologically young surface units, surface ice convection, wind streaks, volatile transport, and glacial flow.

LRO-LAMP observations of the LCROSS impact plume.

On 9 October 2009, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) sent a kinetic impactor to strike Cabeus crater, on a mission to search for water ice and other volatiles expected to be trapped in lunar polar soils. The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) ultraviolet spectrograph onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) observed the plume generated by the LCROSS impact as far-ultraviolet emissions from the fluorescence of sunlight by molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide, plus resonantly scattered sunlight from atomic mercury, with contributions from calcium and magnesium. The observed light curve is well simulated by the expansion of a vapor cloud at a temperature of ~1000 kelvin, containing ~570 kilograms (kg) of carbon monoxide, ~140 kg of molecular hydrogen, ~160 kg of calcium, ~120 kg of mercury, and ~40 kg of magnesium.

Io's atmospheric response to eclipse: UV aurorae observations.

The New Horizons (NH) spacecraft observed Io's aurora in eclipse on four occasions during spring 2007. NH Alice ultraviolet spectroscopy and concurrent Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet imaging in eclipse investigate the relative contribution of volcanoes to Io's atmosphere and its interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. Auroral brightness and morphology variations after eclipse ingress and egress reveal changes in the relative contribution of sublimation and volcanic sources to the atmosphere.