What Pluto Might Look Like [Illustration by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute]
Posted on 06/13/2015 7:28:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In July, New Horizons crosses the next great frontier in our solar system.
Mankind is about to visit one of the strangest places in our solar system. Out beyond Neptune, the Kuiper belt is home to hordes of cold, lumpy worlds -- some of which are large enough to have their own moons, but none of which we've seen up-close before. That's going to change this summer, when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flies by "the king of the Kuiper belt": Pluto. It's no longer considered a planet, but Pluto is still an important member of our solar system, and one of the most mysterious ones, to boot.
A new hour-long documentary from NASA just made us even more excited to explore Pluto for the first time. The video details the dramatic history of the mission, from its launch on "America's biggest, baddest rocket, tricked out with every conceivable booster," to the dangers it could encounter along the way -- flying through the rocky Kuiper belt is a bit like navigating a minefield -- and finally, what it might find when it gets to Pluto. New moons? Rings? Ice volcanoes? "What we expect is to be surprised," says New Horizons mission leader Alan Stern.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
What Pluto Might Look Like [Illustration by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute]
58-minute video:
three minute trailer:
Extra to APoD. Today's APoD has been delayed, I've been trying to get it to load for over an hour, bupkis.
Thanks .
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Many many moon asgo I remember seeing a an old movie about some guys who went to either Neptune or Uranus and found some kind of paradise separated from the rest of the planet by some sort of barrier.
One of the guys stuck his arm through the barrier and pulled it back flash frozen.
Nothing to do with anything, it just came to me.
Planet!
Nifty, Civ very nifty! And Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh from Kansas! (He said with quiet pride.) He also discovered the Kuiper belt and 15 Asteroids.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Tombaugh
Do you, or does anyone know the source of the music starting second 41 and ending at 1:29? (is it Carbon Based Lifeforms?)
And did he say, "Hold my beer!" right before doing so?
Dad got me a subscription to Popular Science when I a
was about 11 years old in ‘62. I really enjoyed reading Were Von Braun’s articles about the American space program, especially Apollo. I don’t ever recall him writing phrases like “the launch on on America’s biggest, baddest rocket, tricked out with every conceivable booster.”
He had a great knack for communicating to lay people without such banalities. He really respected his readers.
I sure do miss America’s pre-dumbed-down days.
I remember as a kid it was said if you threw a banana out your window on Pluto, it would shatter upon impact a meter below.
Don't know if that would happen or not.
If you really want to blow your mind, read up on the physical properties of neutron stars. Stuff like falling off a bar stool and hitting the surface at 1/3rd the speed of light.
Space is cool.
Nice!
Werner, not Were. IPad dumbing-down.
58-minute video:
My dad subscribed for as long as I could remember, and the subscription has continued in the years since his passing. Those Von Braun articles were great; somewhere I have a paperback collection of them with the updates (such as, the target year for the Mars missions).
:’)
I don’t, but someone else may. :’) I’ve not listened to that yet, I ran the trailer last night, but wasn’t paying much attention, alas.
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"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet. |
I believe that was the movie Journey to the Seventh Planet, with John Agar.
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![What Pluto Might Look Like [Illustration by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute]](http://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/medium_1x_/public/pluto-illo.jpg?itok=10mbjVUA)
