Pluto – Just Look at the Detail!

universetoday.com ^ | on July 14, 2015 | Bob King

[BenLurkin]

At 7:49 a.m. EDT today New Horizons made history when it zoomed within 7,800 miles of Pluto, the most remote object ever visited in the Solar System.

Pluto has a very complex surface. The fact that large areas show few craters – as compared to say, Ceres or Vesta – shows that there have relatively recent changes there. Maybe very recent. Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission, was asked by a report at this morning’s press conference if it snows on Pluto. His answer: “It sure looks like it.”

[minnesota_bound]

The photo is upside down... : )

[The Great RJ]

I think I can see Joe Biden’s house.

[Talisker]

Great picture - however - I’m all for (unmanned) space exploration, but for $700 million is that all we get?

Dude, it's PLUTO.

There are 320 million people in this country. That staggeringly phenomenal photograph, and all the others to follow that will be much higher resolution, and the massive amount of scientific data collected outside of photographs - this entire, incredible scientific and technological triumph, cost you $2.19.

Deal with it.

[Heart-Rest]

"Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission, was asked by a report at this morning’s press conference if it snows on Pluto. His answer: “It sure looks like it.”"

[krunkygirl]

U need quotation marks... ;)

[ViLaLuz]

Just wait until they get close ups of Uranus.

[NutCrackerBoy]

Members of NASA's New Horizons team react to seeing the latest image of ...

[editor-surveyor]

Did you see that refrigerator someone dumped just to the left of the white sopt?

[W.]

Is it Klingons or Cling-ons?

I get confused when I laugh too much!

[Republican Wildcat]

Oh, no, this photo is not from 7800 miles - from much farther out taken on the approach. We will not start getting the photos from the closest approach until sometime tomorrow and the full data download taken in highest resolution will not be completed until October 2016 (yes, 2016, not 2015) as the download speed is about 1k (as in...a very, very slow dial-up modem).

[oh8eleven]

So you have a problem with the Apollo moon landing missions, the Skylab space station and later the Space Shuttle?
I was fine with all the space programs up until the Challenger fiasco.
In fact, I was so taken with the original programs like Mercury and Gemini, I used to cut school to watch the launches.
The space program in it's entirety has proven that man's future is here on Earth. If you think I'm wrong, you pay to prove it.

[Jim Noble]

These images are not from the flyby.

They are 36 hours old and are from hundreds of thousands of miles away.

[oh8eleven]

Meaningless, trivial nonsense with zero impact to the everyday taxpayer. The lists also presuppose that the "findings and inventions" would not have been discovered via other means.
In contrast, Dr. Jonas Salk spent 3-4 years and NO public money to create the polio vaccine.

[Red Badger]

Apparently the Plutonians don’t recycle, reuse or repurpose...................

[oh8eleven]

There are 320 million people in this country.
Yeah, and 47% are getting some kind of gubmint support so your "per citizen" cost is BS.
What you can't deal with is the fact that trillions of dollars (and 17 dead astronauts) later, there's nothing out there.

[Talisker]

What you can't deal with is the fact that trillions of dollars (and 17 dead astronauts) later, there's nothing out there.

Go back to your cave, you're irrelevant.

[dila813]

It looks like it has crystals growing into mountains, doesn’t look normal mountain formations.

I think this is even cooler than if they were formed by volcanos on earth.

Makes me wonder what they are made of? What if they are hydrate containing oxygen trapped within the crystal.

Exciting pics!

[Jay Redhawk]

Does anyone know what race of ancient astronauts built all those pyramids, canals, and other ruins we see on the surface of Pluto? They must have been real sophisticated.

[tennmountainman]

Thanks for ping. Been traveling all day.
Hope to catch up on new pics.

[Jane Long]

Lol!!!!