Posted on 07/11/2015 4:52:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Pluto is coming into focus. As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft bears down on this unexplored world of the distant Solar System, new features on its surface are becoming evident. In the displayed image taken last Thursday and released yesterday, an unusual polygonal structure roughly 200 kilometers wide is visible on the left, while just below it relatively complex terrain runs diagonally across the dwarf planet. New Horizon's images and data on these structures will likely be studied for years to come in an effort to better understand the geologic history of Pluto and our Solar System. After suffering a troublesome glitch last week, New Horizons will make its historic flyby of Pluto and its moons on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.]
Sure looks like a planet to me.
Raj: I think he’s eating lunch. Uh, Sheldon, I want you to meet Neil deGrasse Tyson from the Hayden Planetarium in New York.
Sheldon: I’m quite familiar with Dr. Tyson. He’s responsible for the demotion of Pluto from planetary status. I liked Pluto. Ergo I do not like you.
Dr Tyson: But I actually didn’t demote Pluto. That was a vote of the International Astronomical Union.
Sheldon: If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas. Think about that, Dr. Tyson.
Is New Horizons going to smash into Pluto or is it going to be a rover or map the planet a few times?
Going to pass by the planet and keep going. Would take a lot of energy to stop that sucker...
So they aren’t going to be come to determine what the bright lights are on the planet or did they already determine it was ice?
I am going to see Dr. Neil in New Orleans in November. I too will give him a piece of my mind.
That jack o’ lantern smile is so intriguing! Counting the days to close-up.
I tried watching the first episode of “Cosmos.” After his “Why, in jail of course” quip I shut it off. He brings arrogant hubris to en entirely new level.
We have discovered that Pluto is actually our ancient spacecraft that brought us here to this solar system...
At least he’ll have part of one for a change.
That is Ceres........
It’s a HIVE!!..........
Hey, that’s supposed to be a *secret*!
What Textide said. ;’)
This has been a long long wait. It’s remarkable that it’s happening at all, the mission was cancelled once or twice, and revived in time for the launch. Pluto’s atmosphere is believed to freeze solid as it heads away toward the ‘top’ of its orbit.
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"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet. |
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