New Horizons- Pluto or bust

I absolutely cannot wait to find out what comes of this. our whole lives Pluto has been this mystery world in our solar system. The one last unknown body and now we get to finally have a chance to see it up close.

Amazing

 

Clyde Tombaugh the guy who found the planet in 1930 had his ashes put on board by nasa. So he's on the new horizons headed for pluto...thought that was really nice. This guy went from Arizona to a dwarf planet about 3 billion miles away. Where will you be in 85 years?

 

I will be telling Murph, my daughter, the secret to gravity through a 5-dimensional book shelf.

 

Shoot. There are plenty more mysteries in the solar system. I'm betting New Horizons will bring up new ones.

That said, I'm also pretty excited.

 

Absolutely. Voyager 1 & 2 are currently still traveling out and expected to transmit scientific data until about 2025 (though in a limited capacity)

Pluto was the one "planet" we always heard about, but everything was just speculation. I was in elementary during the period just after the Voyager spacecraft took pictures and analyzed the gas giants. So its crazy to think, over 25 years later I FINALLY get to see Pluto.

I ****ing love science.

 

New image.

Spoiler

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/new-horizons-last-portrait-of-pluto-s-puzzling-spots

 

How the hell is that thing sending us pics from that far away??

And we can't get ATT to provide decent LTE...sheeeeeeeeet.

 

New image of Pluto's largest moon, Charon.

Spoiler

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/charon-s-chasms-and-craters

 

This thread is what necro bumping should be!

DD

 

NASA in reporting that the big black hole at the center of the galaxy is actually Kevin Willis.

 

Less than a million miles left!

 

With his alligator arms pulling in all surrounding matter and light.

 

New image of Pluto and Charon.

Spoiler

http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/pluto-20150712.html

 

No signs of alien and UFO yet?

Latest pluto pics.

Spoiler

 

Awesome thread. I am pumped for tomorrow's flyby.

 

If anybody cares, the redish tint comes from methane ice. A bunch of the trans-Neptunian objects have varying degrees of red from the same source.

In order to have methane ice, the surface temp has to never, ever rise above triple point of methane, or it would sublime into space. The triple point of methane is 90 degrees Kevin (-298 farenheit, -183 celsius). The surface temp is actually below the triple point of nitrogen, so you have permanent nitrogen ice.

Basically, if your bare skin touched the surface of Pluto it would flash freeze your hand, colder than dipping in in liquid nitrogen. Basically, Pluto is f'ing cold to a degree that is impossible on Earth. If you place a sample of the surface of Pluto in the coldest natural environment on Earth it would boil away to vapor, presumably somewhat explosively, like dropping an ice cube on a hot griddle.

 

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAAGFBMVEUiIiI9PT0eHh4gIB4hIBkcHBwcHBwcHBydr+JQAAAACHRSTlMABA4YHyQsM5jtaMwAAADfSURBVDjL7ZVBEgMhCAQBAf//42xcNbpAqakcM0ftUmFAAIBE81IqBJdS3lS6zs3bIpB9WED3YYXFPmHRfT8sgyrCP1x8uEUxLMzNWElFOYCV6mHWWwMzdPEKHlhLw7NWJqkHc4uIZphavDzA2JPzUDsBZziNae2S6owH8xPmX8G7zzgKEOPUoYHvGz1TBCxMkd3kwNVbU0gKHkx+iZILf77IofhrY1nYFnB/lQPb79drWOyJVa/DAvg9B/rLB4cC+Nqgdz/TvBbBnr6GBReqn/nRmDgaQEej7WhonozjF+Y2I/fZou/qAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://instagram.com/p/5HTXKMoaFL/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">SNEAK PEAK of gorgeous Pluto! The dwarf planet has sent a love note back to Earth via our New Horizons spacecraft, which has traveled more than 9 years and 3+ billion miles. This is the last and most detailed image of Pluto sent to Earth before the moment of closest approach - 7:49 a.m. EDT today. This same image will be released and discussed at 8 a.m. EDT today. Watch our briefing live on NASA Television at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv The high res pic will be posted on the web at: http://www.nasa.gov. This stunning image of the dwarf planet was captured from New Horizons at about 4 p.m. EDT on July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles (766,000 kilometers) from the surface. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #pluto #plutoflyby #newhorizons #solarsystem #nasabeyond #science</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2015-07-14T11:00:21+00:00">Jul 14, 2015 at 4:00am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>

 

Take two.