Posted on 09/10/2015 4:51:27 PM PDT by lbryce
NASA just released the latest photos of Pluto, and they reveal more complex features and diversity on the surface than scientists could have ever hoped to imagine.
Here's one of the newest photos that shows the heart-shaped feature, informally named Tombaugh Regio, in the upper-right portion of the dwarf planet:
The dwarf planet Pluto might be 4.6 billion miles from Earth, but last July NASA flew its New Horizons spacecraft to get a better look at just 7,800 miles above the Plutonian surface — about 500,000 times closer than Earth. And some of the first photos it snapped and transmitted to Earth told a mysterious tale of this icy world that still has scientists scratching their heads. Mountains of water ice and nitrogen snow are just a couple of the perplexing possibilities on Pluto.
Now, New Horizons has sent back some of the most detailed photos yet of Pluto's surface that have doubled the amount that we can see in super-fine detail.
"Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we've seen in the solar system," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern in a NASA statement. "If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that's what is actually there."
These latest shots reveal the most heavily cratered portion of Pluto ever seen. Because other features on Pluto are surprisingly smooth — which suggests a younger surface smoothed over time by geological activity — this heavily cratered region is the oldest region of Pluto observed so far, NASA said.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
For those who thought going to Pluto was a waste of time and money, including myself, I have proven to be irrefutably wrong. These images are AWESOME. Thee are more to view at the article plus a video
Awesome imagery.
Newest Pluto
Wow
Did I miss the latest memo? I thought Pluto was off the "Planet" list and put on the "not Planet" list...
Ping
As a Scorpio, Pluto’s my planet and they went and made it a dwarf.
Reclassified to “Dwarf planet”.
About 5 others qualify in the category.
If it wasn’t determined, it might turn out the solar system would be 20+ planets as we keep looking.
So then it must be a gub'ment thing? We find more ahh err planets but now we have less.
Got it...
The primary disqualifying criteria for these things that are apparently everywhere on the outer solar system (and one of which we know to be larger than Pluto), is that it must be able to clear its orbit of objects.
Thanks for posting this! I didn’t expect the new images until tomorrow. And WOW, what images they are!
I’m one who was excited about this mission and started champing at the bit when they woke New Horizons from hibernation last winter.
Pluto might be a barren little planet but it’s a beauty.
Wait for the "revised data" next month.
it remains on double-secret planetary probation.
Return Pluto to full planet status. As it turns out, it really is a sphere after all.
Yes. Pluto’s interesting; but nowhere I would want to live (nor could we live there). Pluto’s beautiful in a rugged, barren sort of way. It’s a long, long way from Earth, which is HOME.
ll planets have temperature changes related to their seasons; some changes are more extreme than others. At its warmest, when it is closest to the sun, Pluto can reach temperatures of minus 369 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 223 degrees Celsius). At its coolest, temperatures can fall to minus 387 degrees F (minus 233 C).
I thought the word, “dwarf” was now labeled by the Left as racist or something.
Theater Renames ‘Snow White’ Because the Word ‘Dwarf’ Is Too Offensive [Seven “Friends”!]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3334601/posts
Maybe it should be called an ‘abnormally small planet’ so we don’t offend the dwarves?
Thanks for posting.
That's raci.................. oh wait. Nevermind.
Dwarf planet? Shouldn’t the term be dimensionally challenged planet?
Well, evidently some call it home. You can’t miss the all white area in the picture. Evidence of re-gentrification?
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