Astronomers Reveal Best-Ever Images Of The Far Side Of Pluto

Forbes ^ | October 22, 2019 | Jonathan O'Callaghan

[DoodleBob]

A team of astronomers from NASA’s New Horizons mission has unveiled our best look yet at the far side of Pluto, which went unseen to the spacecraft during its historic July 2015 flyby of the dwarf planet.

We have only seen one hemisphere of Pluto in high-resolution because the New Horizons flyby of Pluto lasted just hours, whereas the dwarf planet takes 6.4 Earth days to rotate. Thus as New Horizons flew past, one side of the world was illuminated by the Sun, but the other was shrouded in darkness.

However, using images taken by the spacecraft while it was on approach up to a distance of six million kilometers away, the team was able to use image processing tools to reveal Pluto’s hidden hemisphere. The final resolution is 100 times better than the Earth-orbiting Hubble telescope, which had previously provided our best views of this hemisphere.

[JPG]

One of the craters deserves the name Pierre Delecto.

[married21]

The scientist in our household, my husband, is a kid at heart.

[seawolf101]

Here's another picture of the dark side.

[Radagast the Fool]

Or Carlos Danger!!

[Reily]

It was originally overseen by military. Eisenhower felt it looked better to the world PR-wise if it was civilian managed. Still only up until the last 30 years there was still a lot of military involvement. For example they didn’t recruit the astronauts from Sears.

[Verginius Rufus]

Among the powers of Congress is "to promote the Progress of Science..."

The preamble talks about providing for the common defence. How can we defend ourselves against a possible attack from Pluto if we don't explore the place?

[samtheman]

Except that there is no “far side of Pluto”, unless you live on Charon.

[kosciusko51]

Read the full clause:

“To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;”

In other words, the US was to secure the rights of inventors.

[Telepathic Intruder]

"It is in orbit around the Sun."

So are asteroids and comets, as well as meteors, and dust specs. A planet must dominate its orbit by sweeping away all other competing debris. That's what makes something a planet according to nebular theory of planet formation. Pluto is part of another group of objects beyond Neptune which, like the asteroid belt, have not cleared their orbits. They all share a collective one making them Kuiper belt objects, not planets. There are thousands of them. Pluto is not only a fraction the mass of our moon, but is wildly eccentric in its orbit and with a high inclination to the ecliptic. Very much unlike the other planets but very similar to the other KBO's. Why you attribute such importance to this tiny object that's one of thousands of others is just plain irrational. But irrationality seems to be the driving force for some. At the time of its discovery, nothing was known about Pluto. They declared it a planet only from a desire to make the headlines, but it should never have been called one. Ceres was once called a planet, until they realized it was only an asteroid--only one in a larger group of them.

[Little Pig]

Pretty sure that “Piccard Mons” refers to one or more members of the Piccard family, who were early balloonists and scientists, rather than Picard the Star Trek character (who was however intended to be related to the real-life Piccards).

[BenLurkin]

Amazing stuff. Thank you for posting.

[Telepathic Intruder]

At Pluto’s closest approach to the sun, it gets only 4% of 1% the sunlight that Earth does. That may provide enough light to see dimly by, but not enough to heat it at all.

[DoodleBob]

Technically, NASA grew out of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which was established as an emergency measure during World War I to promote industry, academic, and government coordination on war-related projects. I guess that's Constitutional.

NASA's remit wasn't tied to military endeavors, thus breaking whatever Constitutional linkage to NACA that NASA may have had. That's my armchair legal ruling.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

More inspiration for my crochet projects. I am going to make scarves that represent the colors of some of our planets. Oh, and Pluto. ;) A few shades of cream, some pale blue & green, buttercream, rust and burgundy.

[SunkenCiv]

thx db.

[DoodleBob]

If you go to NASA's Pluto Time website, you can find out what is the time at which the sunlight you receive equals the brightest sunlight Pluto gets.

[Vermont Lt]

Wasted? If it is indeed a ball of ice, it’s the last gas station on the way to the stars. Not wasted at all.

[DoodleBob]

That's a cool project. I'm also pleased to hear you call Pluto a "planet" but, given this rarely seen shot of Pluto, I dunno....

[Shady]

And those Sizists who say it’s a dwarf planet, HOW DARE THEY! (LOLOLOLOLOL!)

[DannyTN]

The previous best image of the far side of pluto...