Astronomy Picture of the Day -- 50 Miles on Pluto

NASA ^ | July 16, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: A 50 mile (80 kilometer) trip across Pluto would cover the distance indicated by the scale bar in this startling image. The close-up of the icy world's rugged equatorial terrain was captured when the New Horizons spacecraft was about 47,800 miles (77,000 kilometers) from the surface, 1.5 hours before its closest approach. Rising to an estimated 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) the mountains are likely composed of water ice. Suggesting surprising geological activity, they are also likely young with an estimated age of 100 million years or so based on the apparent absence of craters. The region pictured is near the base of Pluto's broad, bright, heart-shaped feature.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit and Copyright: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.]

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

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[cripplecreek]

New pic up at the site.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

[Red Badger]

Those mountains must be HUGE!.....................

[Red Badger]

[Buckeye McFrog]

This makes Muslims feel better about themselves HOW exactly?

[BenLurkin]

Someplace for everyone else to send them.

Send all one billion of them to Pluto.

[qam1]

Since it would be next to impossible to pray towards Mecca, outer space should be Muslime free

[bgill]

Naw, that’s Hillary’s scaly old elbow.

[Ahithophel]

It’s how I’d imagine 50 feet above Muslim populated Uranus might look, crusty.

[colorado tanker]

I thought we were supposed to have close-ups from the flyby now?

[null and void]

As soon as they airbrush out all the buildings!

[colorado tanker]

:-))

[jetson]

I think those crater formations match the constellation Orion.

[Gamecock]

For their contribution to space exploration.

[SunkenCiv]

I think we’ve seen everything that’s worth seeing. Perhaps a bit of a letdown, but then, the first Mars probe wound up just missing the planet and only yielded a handful of flyby shots.

[Red Badger]

Yes, they are similar.
Odd that you should mention ‘Orion’.

I was pulling weeds in my back yard a couple of days ago and knelt down on a small fire ant bed in the process.

The ants swarmed over my knee and, like fire ants do, bit with a vengeance.

The pattern of and bite bumps on my leg now look exactly like the constellation Orion!..................

[DungeonMaster]

That looks a little like Uranus.

[seawolf101]

That looks a little like Uranus.

No, there are rings around Uranus.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, that was supposed to be our secret. ;’)