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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Northern Pluto
NASA ^ | 18 Aug, 2023 | Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute

Posted on 08/18/2023 12:00:55 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Gaze across the frozen canyons of northern Pluto in this contrast enhanced color scene. The image data used to construct it was acquired in July 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft as it made the first reconnaissance flight through the remote Pluto system six billion kilometers from the Sun. Now known as Lowell Regio, the region was named for Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory. Also famous for his speculation that there were canals on Mars, Lowell started the search that ultimately led to Pluto's discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. In this frame Pluto's North Pole is above and left of center. The pale bluish floor of the broad canyon on the left is about 70 kilometers (45 miles) wide, running vertically toward the south. Higher elevations take on a yellowish hue. New Horizon's measurements were used to determine that in addition to nitrogen ice, methane ice is abundant across Lowell Regio. So far, Pluto is the only Solar System world named by an 11-year-old girl.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: 9thplanet; nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 08/18/2023 12:00:55 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 08/18/2023 12:01:09 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; Agatsu77; America_Right; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 08/18/2023 12:01:59 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Thats way far out there.


4 posted on 08/18/2023 12:03:46 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Sufferings are the guardrails on the road to Heaven.)
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To: MtnClimber

With enough energy and materials, we can build our own habitats, or make worlds habitable.


5 posted on 08/18/2023 12:24:10 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: MtnClimber

This link will let one simulate how bright it is on Pluto at Pluto’s “High Noon” from where one lives.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/pluto/plutotime/


6 posted on 08/18/2023 12:34:24 PM PDT by Ben Dover
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To: MtnClimber

So is the blue stuff ice?


7 posted on 08/18/2023 1:01:29 PM PDT by ByteMercenary (Cho Bi Dung and KamalHo are not my leaders.)
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To: ByteMercenary
So is the blue stuff ice?

If I had to guess I would say that the blue is frozen nitrogen.

8 posted on 08/18/2023 1:07:31 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: ByteMercenary

They’re the Democrat areas.


9 posted on 08/18/2023 1:10:45 PM PDT by beethovenfan (The REAL Great Reset will be when Jesus returns. )
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To: MtnClimber

If you zoom in on the image you’ll see redish-brown deposits. I wonder what that is.


10 posted on 08/18/2023 4:16:05 PM PDT by fretzer
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To: MtnClimber

Sure looks like a planet to me.


11 posted on 08/18/2023 9:44:17 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite its unfashionability)
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