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?
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
New image of Pluto and Charon. Spoiler http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/pluto-20150712.html
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>