Pluto Pictures From New Horizons Put a New Face on Dwarf Planet

nbc ^ | June 11, 2015 | Alan Boyle

[BenLurkin]

These four images were taken at different times during Pluto's rotational period of 6.4 days -- on June 2, June 1, May 31 and May 29, from left to right. The central longitudes are 17 degrees, 63 degrees, 130 degrees and 243 degrees, respectively. New Horizons' LORRI imager took the pictures at distances ranging from 31 million miles to 34 million miles. NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

[BenLurkin]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/

LORRI Images from the Pluto Encounter
(displayed in raw form without special stretching)

Welcome to the New Horizons image site, where NASA and the New Horizons mission are happy to provide these JPEG images - displayed in raw form without special processing - for the public to use and enjoy. These JPEGs of images taken by the LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) are generally posted within 48 hours after receipt at the New Horizons Science Operations Center. The date/time listed in the image caption is when the picture was taken by the spacecraft, though receipt of the data on Earth could be many days later, depending on when the image is downloaded from New Horizons.

[yarddog]

That’s it?

Will they get better?

[ClearCase_guy]

It’s pining for the fjords.

[cripplecreek]

Closest pass will be about July 6th.

[cripplecreek]

Looks like it has an udder.

[yarddog]

Thanks.

[BipolarBob]

Do you need glasses? Are they fuzzy to you? That place looks awesome.

[marron]

Its an intergalactic refueling station. And inn.

[yarddog]

It looks like my first B&W TV just before the picture tube went out.

[SkyDancer]

Still too fuzzy. Will there be sharper ones as the probe gets closer?

[cripplecreek]

Still nearly 24,000,000 miles out.

[jazusamo]

There’s a face of a guy with a Stalin mustache in the first pic, or am I seeing things? :)

[BenLurkin]

" Here are two versions of an image that is a stack of four images obtained 15 seconds apart on June 6 at a range of 45.8 million km. Here they have been enlarged by a factor of four. ...

"The right version has been sharpened using RegiStax. The sharpened version reveals a diagonal dark band on Pluto - it's now absolutely certain that this is a real feature. In contrast, the apparently brighter terrain at the right limb is almost certainly a processing artifact. Charon may be starting to show large scale markings, i.e. possibly very slightly darker terrain in its upper left 'quadrant'. But this could easily be an image processing artifact.

...

"It wouldn't surprise me if small dark spots started appearing within the bright terrain at much higher resolution and/or small bright spots started appearing within the dark terrain."

Bjorn Jonsson http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=f65bb4f467e2cf3d2d7919bd2b76c127&showtopic=7970&st=240&p=221117&#entry221117

[Crim]

There are no black people there...so obviously Pluto is racist.

[Moonman62]

That’s it?

Will they get better?

...

A whole lot better. But for now, each day will give us the best pictures ever, even though they aren’t all that impressive yet.

[max americana]

The homeys might burn it down as well...

[occamrzr06]

" Here are two versions of an image that is a stack of four images obtained 15 seconds apart on June 6 at a range of 45.8 million km

What's with this metric crap. That's why Europeans are so jacked up. Even they can't figure it out.

[NormsRevenge]

canoli on Pluto? .. wow.

[Crim]

LMAO...reverend AL is taking donations to go riot on pluto!