Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Pluto Resolved

NASA ^ | July 15, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

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

[aquila48]

It’s uncanny how that light feature on the bottom half looks like a heart.

[lurk]

Hancock put it there.

[Jack Hydrazine]

[onyx]

LOLOLOLOL

[onyx]

BTTT

[Dagnabitt]

Looking forward to seeing the really close-up stuff. Read that they expect to the first picture tomorrow.

[Cyman]

Just woke up my neighbors as I couldn’t stop laughing. Great eye, great talent.

[dragnet2]

Almost appears as an out flowing of material from a large impact at lower half.

[dr_lew]

I’m thinking that all these large feaures are primordial, reflecting the origins of the Pluto system in some kind of complex collision, probably with follow-up collisions over the course of some millions of years, but all transpiring some few billions of years ago.

[Pontiac]

Great job.

I think Donald would work there as well.

[raybbr]

New Horizons must have one heck of a flash!

I wonder if they have taken pics of the Sun from there? It'd be cool to see what it looks like at that distance.

[dr_lew]

It’s a simple exercise. It has the same surface brightness but a smaller apparent size. Simple adjustments of focal length and exposure would make it appear as the same bright disk that we see from earth.

[SunkenCiv]

It does, probably is. Despite its small size relative to the rest of the planets, and its somewhat lower density than the other four rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), Pluto’s out by itself and better able to capture new satellites. The view that Pluto-Charon was formed in an impact event is the more popular explanation for Charon’s origin.

[smartymarty]

Someone please bring me up to date: Is Pluto still considered a planet? I learned that as a child, so I’m inclined to stick with that.

[OwenKellogg]

Someone please bring me up to date: Is Pluto still considered a planet?

---

No, Pluto is not a planet, and Uranus is now a sex organ.

[Balding_Eagle]

BTTT Man, that’s great.

[Red Badger]

beautiful!.....................

[SunkenCiv]

Walt was a genius at promotion.

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

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