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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Pluto in Enhanced Color
APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 1 Aug, 2021 | Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Inst.

Posted on 08/01/2021 2:48:35 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015 July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced-color view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different, with the leftmost lobe Sputnik Planitia also appearing unusually smooth. After Pluto, New Horizons continued on, shooting past asteroid Arrokoth in 2019 and has enough speed to escape our Solar System completely.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: 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 08/01/2021 2:48:35 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 08/01/2021 2:48:54 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; America_Right; AZ .44 MAG; BBB333; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 08/01/2021 2:50:06 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; SunkenCiv
Honest to goodness, we got our money's worth out of New Horizons. That little probe sent back stunning photos, incredible data, and tested our nerves with the 2015 Independence Day Safe Mode retreat. It brought out the best in American scientific leadership, and resolve, and Dr Brian May from Queen was interested.

Sadly, it may be the Swan Song in that regard for NASA, but clearly we will reap the rewards for years to come.

4 posted on 08/01/2021 2:54:08 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^2)
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To: MtnClimber

5 posted on 08/01/2021 2:58:27 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: MtnClimber

That is really neat!


6 posted on 08/01/2021 3:10:05 PM PDT by Ros42 (We need an "APLC" (American Patriot Law Center))
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To: MtnClimber

Obama wanted more muslims in the U.s. space program, why the heck didnt we put one on the new horizons probe??


7 posted on 08/01/2021 4:13:48 PM PDT by Ikeon (before you get depressed,. take a minute and make sure you arent just surrounded by assholes)
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To: MtnClimber

Well it sure ain’t Uranus!


8 posted on 08/01/2021 4:44:22 PM PDT by jmacusa (America. Founded by geniuses . Now governed by idiots.)
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To: SpaceBar

I guessed rightly that someone would post a picture of the other Pluto.


9 posted on 08/01/2021 5:33:59 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: MtnClimber

Looks like somebody peed on it.


10 posted on 08/01/2021 6:08:09 PM PDT by Bullish (CNN is what happens when 8th graders run a cable network.)
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To: MtnClimber

Pluto is still a planet as far as I’m concerned.


11 posted on 08/02/2021 3:19:53 AM PDT by FredSchwartz (What ever happened to common sense and simple logic?)
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