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AWESOME!New Pluto photos reveal features that 'rival anything we've seen in the solar system'
Business Insider ^ | September 10, 2014 | Jessica Owing

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 ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: newhorizons; pluto
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Actual Title:New Pluto Photos Reveal Features that rival anything we've seen in the solar system'

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.


1 posted on 09/10/2015 4:51:27 PM PDT by lbryce
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To: SunkenCiv

Newest Pluto


2 posted on 09/10/2015 4:52:12 PM PDT by lbryce (OBAMA:Misbegotten, GodForsaken, Bastard offspring of Satan and Medusa)
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To: lbryce

Wow


3 posted on 09/10/2015 4:54:47 PM PDT by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: lbryce
"The dwarf planet Pluto...

Did I miss the latest memo? I thought Pluto was off the "Planet" list and put on the "not Planet" list...

4 posted on 09/10/2015 4:57:09 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: GeronL; KC_Lion

Ping


5 posted on 09/10/2015 4:57:48 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: lbryce

As a Scorpio, Pluto’s my planet and they went and made it a dwarf.


6 posted on 09/10/2015 4:58:54 PM PDT by Bullish (Face it, insanity is just not presidential.)
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To: Mad Dawgg

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.


7 posted on 09/10/2015 4:59:23 PM PDT by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: Crazieman
"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...

8 posted on 09/10/2015 5:02:10 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg

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.


9 posted on 09/10/2015 5:05:10 PM PDT by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: lbryce

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.


10 posted on 09/10/2015 5:09:28 PM PDT by radu (May God watch over our troops and keep them safe)
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To: Mad Dawgg
"So then it must be a gub'ment thing? We find more ahh err planets but now we have less."

Wait for the "revised data" next month.

11 posted on 09/10/2015 5:09:37 PM PDT by Da Bilge Troll (Defeatism is not a winning strategy!)
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To: Crazieman
Until Pluto can clear its orbit of objects, Dean Wormer photo: Dean Wormer dean-wormer.jpg it remains on double-secret planetary probation.
12 posted on 09/10/2015 5:17:45 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: Mad Dawgg

Return Pluto to full planet status. As it turns out, it really is a sphere after all.


13 posted on 09/10/2015 5:40:31 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: lbryce

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.


14 posted on 09/10/2015 5:56:13 PM PDT by Twinkie (Nine - Eleven: All I want to know about Islam.)
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To: lbryce

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).


15 posted on 09/10/2015 6:01:28 PM PDT by ez (Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is... - Milton)
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To: Bullish

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?


16 posted on 09/10/2015 6:06:56 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: lbryce

Thanks for posting.


17 posted on 09/10/2015 6:34:31 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: Mad Dawgg
I thought Pluto was off the "Planet" list and put on the "not Planet" list...

That's raci.................. oh wait. Nevermind.

18 posted on 09/10/2015 6:37:23 PM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Crazieman

Dwarf planet? Shouldn’t the term be dimensionally challenged planet?


19 posted on 09/10/2015 6:46:07 PM PDT by Flick Lives (One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. -- Heinlein)
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To: Twinkie

Well, evidently some call it home. You can’t miss the all white area in the picture. Evidence of re-gentrification?


20 posted on 09/10/2015 6:49:27 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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