Posted on 10/24/2019 10:26:44 AM PDT by DoodleBob
A team of astronomers from NASA’s New Horizons mission has unveiled our best look yet at the far side of Pluto, which went unseen to the spacecraft during its historic July 2015 flyby of the dwarf planet.
We have only seen one hemisphere of Pluto in high-resolution because the New Horizons flyby of Pluto lasted just hours, whereas the dwarf planet takes 6.4 Earth days to rotate. Thus as New Horizons flew past, one side of the world was illuminated by the Sun, but the other was shrouded in darkness.
However, using images taken by the spacecraft while it was on approach up to a distance of six million kilometers away, the team was able to use image processing tools to reveal Pluto’s hidden hemisphere. The final resolution is 100 times better than the Earth-orbiting Hubble telescope, which had previously provided our best views of this hemisphere.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
This is the 'dark side' of Pluto:
This is the map of all the pictures New Horizons took of the visible (up close) and dark side (millions of miles away):
Not to be a killjoy, but NASA's mission isn't in concert with the enumerated powers of the govt via the Constitution. That said, if the rest of the govt operated like NASA did on New Horizons (including troubleshooting a Safe Mode problem days before flyby), we'd be in great shape.
ping
Pink Floyd needs to make an album named after this.
love how scientists name things. “Balrog Macula”, “Piccard Mons”. lol.
Looks okay to me.
Yes it is, just think of it as Lewis & Clark in the 3rd dimension!
But what about Ur...oh, never mind!
To be a killjoy, Pluto is a tiny ball of ice in perpetual near darkness. It is unlike a planet in every way except being round. No one will ever see it with their own eyes. Amazing how much money we’re able to waste just to get a few pictures of it.
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At least it’s not Uranus.
I think the anxiety and depression these pictures caused the liberals to experience because they don’t show any polar bears or penguins made it all worth the money spent. They’re still crying, whining and wringing their hands over this. LOL.
In 2620, to avoid any more anus jokes, it will be renamed "Urectum"...
Pluto was discovered during H.P. Lovecraft’s lifetime, and fascinated him (given his lifelong interest in astronomy). I think he would have been surprised and (hopefully) flattered to know that his most breakout creation provided the name of one of the largest features on Pluto.
Actually, it’s not that dark. More like about sunrise or sunset on earth.
https://www.space.com/29600-pluto-time-nasa-new-horizons.html
Cthulu!
omg—somebody thinks there is something really bad down there... ;-)
“It is unlike a planet in every way except being round.”
You are full of it.
It is in orbit around the Sun.
Pierre Delecto.
Noooo! Pierre Delecto is definitely not a name chosen by a scientist!
May be that the scientists' kids are asked for input, from time to time...
;^)
Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery for the Lewis & Clark expedition, whose "objectives were scientific and commercial."
If our spaceflight program was as part of the military, with NASA was overseen by DoD, it would be equivalent to the Corps of Discovery.
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