Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Youthful Frozen Plains Cover Pluto’s Big ‘Heart’ – Spectacular New Images from New Horizons
universetoady.com ^ | on July 17, 2015 | Ken Kremer

Posted on 07/17/2015 2:00:57 PM PDT by BenLurkin

A vast, craterless plain of Plutonian ice no more than 100 million years old and centered amidst Pluto’s big ‘heart’ was unveiled in spectacular new imagery taken by NASA’s resounding successful New Horizons mission, during its history making rapid transit through the Pluto-Charon binary planet system barely three days ago, on Tuesday, July 14.

The jaw dropping new imagery was publicly released today, July 17, by NASA and scientists leading the New Horizons mission during a media briefing, and has already resulted in ground breaking new scientific discoveries at the last planet in our solar system to be visited by a spacecraft from Earth.

...

“Over 50 gigabits of data were collected during the encounter and flyby periods,” New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, said during the media briefing.

“So far less than 1 gigabit of data has been returned.”

It will take some 16 months for all the Pluto flyby data to be transmitted back to Earth.

(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; charon; deusexmachina; newhorizons; pluto
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-49 next last
To: BenLurkin

It screams “active geology”. My questions include how and why there is an active hot core.


21 posted on 07/17/2015 2:46:23 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

22 posted on 07/17/2015 2:55:18 PM PDT by Eddie01 (Liberal's lie about everything all the time)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Seruzawa
Close in photos have to be photoshopped first to cover up Disney copyrighted features.

Too late...


23 posted on 07/17/2015 3:00:45 PM PDT by smoothsailing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: AlmaKing
1,000 BPS, and it's the longest in distance, radio transmission the human race has ever accomplished.
24 posted on 07/17/2015 3:20:02 PM PDT by Not now, Not ever! (Girlfriend suggested I use pelousy in place of swear words, A good idea, I think)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: JimSEA

Isn’t it the “tidal” action of orbiting together with CHaron?


25 posted on 07/17/2015 3:23:04 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Not now, Not ever!

I thought we were still getting data from the Voyager probes, that are almost 20 billion Km away.


26 posted on 07/17/2015 3:47:13 PM PDT by henkster (Where'd my tagline go?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: centurion316
Yeah, they tend to be more irregular, but not always, for example here is a dry lake bed that is almost hexagonal:

So I think the conditions affect the geometry. If I had to guess, the quicker they dry out, the more irregular they will probably be. Just a hunch.

27 posted on 07/17/2015 3:51:09 PM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Notice also, the “hills” only seem to form inside the “troughs”, and never on top of the segments.

It looks like something is seeping up through those fissures and piling up on the surface to form the hills.


28 posted on 07/17/2015 4:16:00 PM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Not now, Not ever!
it's the longest in distance, radio transmission the human race has ever accomplished.

That we know of...we are getting the signal from afar but we have transmitted radio signals into space for years and have no concept of how far they my have traveled...

29 posted on 07/17/2015 4:59:45 PM PDT by terycarl (, COMMON SENSE PREVAILS OVERALL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Having a moon that’s almost as big as you are keeps both cores hot???


30 posted on 07/17/2015 5:16:51 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: JimSEA

I don’t know.


31 posted on 07/17/2015 5:19:37 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Still, Europa doesn’t have the ice mountain range building as does Pluto even though it does have indications of plate tectonics?


32 posted on 07/17/2015 5:19:48 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: JoeProBono

If that’s Pluto, that’s a thriving city.


33 posted on 07/17/2015 5:21:53 PM PDT by Lazamataz (Back in the 1970's, Iran used to call us the "Great Satan". Turns out they were right all along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: JimSEA

Also note, no impact craters in the above image, which would indicate the area is relatively young.


34 posted on 07/17/2015 5:31:53 PM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: onedoug

Very active plate movement/collisions?


35 posted on 07/17/2015 5:34:17 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: JimSEA

Seems the hills lift up around the “plated” regions, whereas if compressional, one should expect them across those surfaces as well. No evident subduction. Perhaps some sort of surface “stretching” in which plutonic material may fill in the gaps.

Very strange indeed.


36 posted on 07/17/2015 5:55:55 PM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: onedoug

We’re likely to have fun with this for quite a while.


37 posted on 07/17/2015 6:15:38 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Lazamataz


38 posted on 07/17/2015 6:26:04 PM PDT by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: JPG

(Source: xkcd)

39 posted on 07/17/2015 6:57:36 PM PDT by Gideon7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Not now, Not ever!

What about Voyager? I believe that would bold the long distance record. They are both still sending back data.


40 posted on 07/17/2015 8:00:41 PM PDT by Woodman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-49 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson