New Horizons arrives @ Pluto

[Tender Branson]

As NASA's unmanned New Horizons spacecraft speeds closer to a historic July 14 Pluto flyby, it's continuing to multi-task, producing images of an icy world that's growing more fascinating and complex every day.



On July 11, 2015, New Horizons captured this image, which suggests some new features that are of keen interest to the Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team now assembled at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland. For the first time on Pluto, this view reveals linear features that may be cliffs, as well as a circular feature that could be an impact crater. Just starting to rotate into view on the left side of the image is the bright heart-shaped feature that will be seen in more detail during New Horizons' closest approach.

The New Horizons spacecraft is now approaching a milestone – only one million miles to Pluto – which will occur at 11:23 p.m. EDT tonight, Sunday, July 12. It's approaching Pluto after a more than nine-year, three-billion mile journey. At 7:49 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 14 the unmanned spacecraft will zip past Pluto at 30,800 miles per hour (49,600 kilometers per hour), with a suite of seven science instruments busily gathering data. The mission will complete the initial reconnaissance of the solar system with the first-ever look at the icy dwarf planet.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150712-3

[Tender Branson]

NASA also found out that Pluto is larger than what was estimated, based on the new pictures:

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http://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-big-is-pluto-new-horizons-settles-decades-long-debate

Hopefully Pluto will now be re-instated as 9th planet again !

[DemPGH]

The Science Channel here is going to air a documentary about this sometime over the summer, and I'm looking forward to it!

Yeah, I think Pluto should be reinstated as the ninth planet. I thought Pluto's demotion was a little reactionary.

[Spamage]

I'm extremely excited about this. I still remember the day this mission launched, back when Pluto was an undisputed planet.

I'm also eager for what remains to be discovered beyond Pluto. I was reading an article last night about how there may be an undiscovered Earth or Mars sized planet beyond the Kuiper belt (some estimates say there could even be a Neptune sized planet just extremely far out there, not seen due to the lack of light reaching it). This apparently would justify the odd orbits of Sedna and VP113 while also explaining the Kuiper Cliff. (Here I was thinking the only people believing in another planet it our system were the tinfoil hat crowd)

Yeah, I think Pluto should be reinstated as the ninth planet. I thought Pluto's demotion was a little reactionary.

Same.

[muon2]

The Science Channel here is going to air a documentary about this sometime over the summer, and I'm looking forward to it!

Yeah, I think Pluto should be reinstated as the ninth planet. I thought Pluto's demotion was a little reactionary.

I'd hardly call it reactionary. I'd say it was due. Ceres was demoted after other sizable objects were discovered in the Asteroid Belt, so why shouldn't Pluto be similarly demoted once other sizable objects were established in the Kuiper Belt?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

NASA also found out that Pluto is larger than what was estimated, based on the new pictures:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-big-is-pluto-new-horizons-settles-decades-long-debate

Hopefully Pluto will now be re-instated as 9th planet again !

Nah.  It's not in the ecliptic and it is merely the largest (and namesake) of the many plutinos that are in a 2:3 resonant orbit with Neptune.  What all these resonant KBOs indicate to me is that Neptune is our system's eighth and last major planet.  I wouldn't mind making "planet" be the term for any object in hydrostatic equilibrium that orbits a star, with "major planet" being used to describe the eight current planets, but by that standard, the 9th planet is Neptune, whether ordered by date of discovery or distance from Sol as Ceres would be the 8th planet or the 5th planet depending on how you order them.

[YL]

Yes, call it a planet if you like, but not the ninth planet.

Anyway, the pictures of both Pluto and Charon are more interesting than the definition of "planet".  What are those dark areas around Pluto's equator and on Charon's pole?  What's the "heart" doing on Pluto and why does it have such a sharp-looking boundary with the darker areas?  What are the linear-looking features?...

[muon2]

Made it. Now, we wait for the pics.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

Wouldn't recognizing Pluto as a planet mean we would have to recognize Eris as well? Eris is bigger than Pluto (and there's probably even more bigger in the Kuiper Belt)

[muon2]

Wouldn't recognizing Pluto as a planet mean we would have to recognize Eris as well? Eris is bigger than Pluto (and there's probably even more bigger in the Kuiper Belt)

The new measurement of Pluto puts it barely larger than Eris. It seems that Pluto is lower density due to a lot more ice inside than was previously thought.

[DemPGH]

The Science Channel here is going to air a documentary about this sometime over the summer, and I'm looking forward to it!

Yeah, I think Pluto should be reinstated as the ninth planet. I thought Pluto's demotion was a little reactionary.

I'd hardly call it reactionary. I'd say it was due. Ceres was demoted after other sizable objects were discovered in the Asteroid Belt, so why shouldn't Pluto be similarly demoted once other sizable objects were established in the Kuiper Belt?

I'm not an astronomer, but I've followed this closely enough to be of the opinion that I don't think we know enough about the Kuiper Belt, where it starts and stops, etc., and I don't think we knew enough about Pluto - then especially - to just add a single criteria like "Dwarf Planet" and then say, "Oh, well, it's no longer a planet!" Seems to me that Pluto's status was changed because it doesn't look like Neptune. So if one of the small planets in our solar system were in or near the Kuiper Belt, it wouldn't be considered a planet? That's hard to believe. I guess that's my line of thought.

I'm also uncomfortable with the fact that this was a highly subjective stance that hid behind "scientific classification." I don't much like that. Best to be cautious and let it stand as a planet until we know for sure it isn't.

[muon2]

The Science Channel here is going to air a documentary about this sometime over the summer, and I'm looking forward to it!

Yeah, I think Pluto should be reinstated as the ninth planet. I thought Pluto's demotion was a little reactionary.

I'd hardly call it reactionary. I'd say it was due. Ceres was demoted after other sizable objects were discovered in the Asteroid Belt, so why shouldn't Pluto be similarly demoted once other sizable objects were established in the Kuiper Belt?

I'm not an astronomer, but I've followed this closely enough to be of the opinion that I don't think we know enough about the Kuiper Belt, where it starts and stops, etc., and I don't think we knew enough about Pluto - then especially - to just add a single criteria like "Dwarf Planet" and then say, "Oh, well, it's no longer a planet!" Seems to me that Pluto's status was changed because it doesn't look like Neptune. So if one of the small planets in our solar system were in or near the Kuiper Belt, it wouldn't be considered a planet? That's hard to believe. I guess that's my line of thought.

I'm also uncomfortable with the fact that this was a highly subjective stance that hid behind "scientific classification." I don't much like that. Best to be cautious and let it stand as a planet until we know for sure it isn't.

The problem was that astronomers lacked a technical definition for a planet. The asteroids originally created a problem for that lack of definition, but then they got lumped into a special category. As we found more asteroid-like objects outside the Asteroid Belt, they were called asteroids in other categories like Trojan Asteroids (trapped by Jupiter's gravity) and Near Earth Asteroids (anything closer than the Asteroid Belt). Telescopes weren't good enough to show the richness of objects orbiting the Sun.

Pluto was a lucky find given the technology of the day, and it took decades to find anything else like it. But even before other similar objects were observed late 20th century astronomy was revealing that Pluto didn't git in with any of the other 8 planets and that go the question of the technical definition of a planet back up for debate among astronomers. When other Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Neptune were observed and we started to see planets around other stars, the pressure was on to get a formal definition. There was a lot of debate about the form of the definition in the first years of the 20th century before the current one was adopted in 2006.

Before 2006 the definition of a planet was subjective. Now it is objective. That objective definition was going to place some objects outside the definition, and Pluto ended up on the outside. The companion definition of dwarf planet was created in large part to give Pluto a category more substantial than smaller asteroids, though it isn't unique in that status with five currently accepted (any many others suspected) in that category.

[Tender Branson]

Made it. Now, we wait for the pics.

Best picture so far (500.000 km distance):

[Tender Branson]

Also:

[Tender Branson]

This is amazing:

The new picture of Pluto the dwarf planet features an area that looks like Pluto the cartoon dog:

[muon2]

Since Disney named the cartoon dog after the just-discovered astronomical body in 1930, did he have special powers to see the surface and draw the dog after the bright region, or was he able to arrange for the markings after his death?

[Middle-aged Europe]

I always expected Pluto to look like the Moon or Mercury. Instead it's somewhat reminiscent of Mars. What's up with the beige colour?

[afleitch]

Watching it live. Amazing findings.

Geologically active, frozen peaks of water ice up to 11,000 ft and areas with no impact craters.

[Beezer]

[angus]

Right now on NOVA:  "Chasing Pluto"

Some images of Pluto captured by New Horizons are featured.  Mostly there are interviews, but it's interesting.  There's even a blurb about Mickey's dog Pluto.

Just FYI.

[badgate]

Since Disney named the cartoon dog after the just-discovered astronomical body in 1930, did he have special powers to see the surface and draw the dog after the bright region, or was he able to arrange for the markings after his death?

Oh please. It's common knowledge that Mr. Disney was cryogenically frozen.

[7,052,770]

Where's the mass relay?

[Marokai Backbeat]

This is amazing:

The new picture of Pluto the dwarf planet features an area that looks like Pluto the cartoon dog:

Sorry bro, but that heart-shaped area is pretty clearly just the end of Sailor Pluto's Garnet Rod.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

This is amazing:

The new picture of Pluto the dwarf planet features an area that looks like Pluto the cartoon dog:

Sorry bro, but that heart-shaped area is pretty clearly just the end of Sailor Pluto's Garnet Rod.

I wonder how long it will be before astrologers start making Pluto a planet of love in their calculations?

[Bacon King]

Where's the mass relay?

frozen inside it

we don't have enough evidence to try and thaw it out until we find those Prothean relics on Mars