New Horizons to flyby Pluto in a week

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Finally... we are going to see up close that mysterious tiny object that once was considered the ninth planet in our school textbooks! Since the launch of New Horizons it has been downgraded to "Dwarf Planet" but that doesn't make it any less exciting especially considering 4 new moons have been found around it. Earlier this week New Horizons encountered a bug that temporarily held off operations until yesterday when they resumed. New Horizons will flyby Pluto on the 14th.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new ... yby-begins

The spacecraft will likely not be done yet after Pluto, it will possibly visit one or two more objects out there.


Public Domain: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI
This must have been what it felt like with Voyager 2 at Neptune, there won't be a flyby first for an object this big for a very long time (unless Eris is decided upon).
50 years ago July 15 Mariner 4 flew by Mars providing us the first close up pictures of Mars, now we are flying by what was considered the final one at the time, Pluto.
Along with Ceres (the other formerly considered planet that is now a dwarf planet).
This makes 2015 the year of the Dwarf Planet.

YAY!! !

That was really interesting. Thanks!

sorta reminds me of the first space probe pics of mars.

Houston, We Have Geology

Well it's clearly not a yellow puppy.
The dark spots look like a reindeer with antlers.

the ancient Japanese thought the earth's moon had on its face the image of a giant rabbit making mochee [Japanese rice staple]. I wonder what they would have made of the face of pluto had they been able to see it back in the day.

If the moon was turned to the right more, they would see the eye-shaped Mare Orientale staring at them all night!
Titan's dark spots on a map look like a Chinese Dragon facing left fire coming from it's nose.

I wonder how earth's history would have changed had the mare orientale faced the earth all these eons?

Last image of what will be the farside during encounter.

While it would be cool to see the reindeer upclose there is also a very bright heart standing out on the otherside.

I wonder how high a resolution will be obtained at its closest pass @ 6000 miles?

Here's an article with resolution examples and what to expect

Voyager images: NASA/JPL. Chart by Emily Lakdawalla.

^^^
thank you for that! very informative. all these years I've wondered what it will look like and now I know

It looks like there is some cratering and chasm action on Charon.

Under 10 hours left!! !

Pluto's size has also been found to be bigger that previously thought.
When "Pluto's size" is googled it says "Our favorite dwarf planet since 2006"

Last edited by AntDog on 13 Jul 2015, 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

they both look like they got bombed by outer space debris. pluto is lumpy.

I am seeing... a very interesting planet, with a big sense of affection for something named after the Roman god of the underworld

WE HAVE CLOSEST APPROACH!! !
7,774.5 Miles away from Pluto!
History in the making, the last 'planet' has been explored!