Pluto probe snaps sharpest picture yet!

[Artful]

This morning, the United States became the first country to reach Pluto -- and the first country to explore the entire classical solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.


NASA's New Horizons interplanetary probe has been making its way to Pluto since January 19, 2006, and has been providing the world with the sharpest photos ever seen of our Solar System's most prominent "dwarf planet." Today, it made its closest approach to Pluto yet -- about 8,000 miles -- at around 07:49:57 EDT.


Here's the photo they took -- which, despite traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), took four and a half hours to reach us here on Earth as it crossed the 3 billion miles between here and Pluto:

That we were able to get so close to Pluto today is a feat whose probability scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson likened to "a hole-in-one on a two-mile golf shot." He's right.


Every once in a while, a photo comes along that has the ability to shift not just how we see our place in the universe, but how we see ourselves -- not just as Americans, but as citizens of Earth.


This is one of those photos, and I hope you'll share it with someone today.


More soon -- John


Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy

[PB234]

Thank you I enjoyed your post.

[bangerjim]

And I thought we had a good picture all along!

[dtknowles]

This was a nice birthday present for me today. It is also Bastille Day. It is also annoying, some of the claims made about this accomplishment today. I had a message from Bolden (NASA Administrator) with congrats but he claimed the accomplishment for the Obama Administration, the project conceived, assembled and launched before Obama was in place. Then I see that Neil deGrasse Tyson likened to "a hole-in-one on a two-mile golf shot." That probe is guided carefully to its destination not just kicked out to see where it might land. This stuff is done by people who can think long term and make a commitment. I think Tyson's comment is just a poor analogy and he meant it as a compliment. New Horizons was the third fastest man made object traveling at over 36,000 miles per hour.

I wonder if that is a cloud in the picture. I hope they have more pictures of Pluto's moons. I find this stuff very cool but I think it is hard to justify the expense, $675 Million for some better pictures of a remote frozen planet (dwarf planet). If we weren't so deep in debt I would not even question it but we are broke.

I will enjoy the pictures, the money is already spent and it will probably be the book on Pluto for decades to come, not like we will send any other probe anytime soon. It is nice to show the Europeans we can do it too. The Russians and the Chinese aren't even it this race.

Tim

[Wayne Smith]

$675 Million and every dollar of that was spent here on earth. Never forget that. The spending that advances science and technology is never 'wasted', it fertilizes more advancement.

[Hogtamer]

dt, thanks for your input but your analysis is wrong. I can plainly see that is not a cloud. You are looking end on at the sprue of that big ole round ball, a little smear cast from a Lee mold! A little harder alloy would clear ir right up.

[Point-Man]

Thank you for the post. It would have never happened if Obama were president in 06. Money well spent on jobs and not on welfare or foreign aid.

[dtknowles]

$675 Million and every dollar of that was spent here on earth. Never forget that. The spending that advances science and technology is never 'wasted', it fertilizes more advancement.

And almost all of it was spent here in the U.S.A. but a lot of that money went to Liberal University staff and Labs, of course not everyone who works at Johns Hopkins is a liberal. Not a lot of new technology was developed, just custom designed and built equipment based on the best tech available at the time. Not saying it does not lead to more innovation, it does. I thank everyone who supports space exploration, I do too. I know that a few hundred million saved will not change the deficit and this was spread over a decade. Of course a big part of the cost is the Launch and that is mature tech.

The pictures are really awesome, I can't wait for more of the moons.

Tim

[opos]

As an old man that has been a spectator at many wonderful developments I am once again grateful that I can see a picture of what I have heard about all my life...and I am once again amazed at the fact that no matter what takes place in this world today..someone has to take issue with it..others have to claim the rights and it always ends up political...can't anyone just be amazed and grateful for the things that happen? I don't care who did it or who claims credit or how it was done...it was done by dedicated people that have spent years involved in a project to show this old man one more miracle.

[dtknowles]

As an old man that has been a spectator at many wonderful developments I am once again grateful that I can see a picture of what I have heard about all my life...and I am once again amazed at the fact that no matter what takes place in this world today..someone has to take issue with it..others have to claim the rights and it always ends up political...can't anyone just be amazed and grateful for the things that happen? I don't care who did it or who claims credit or how it was done...it was done by dedicated people that have spent years involved in a project to show this old man one more miracle.

Good thoughts.

Tim

[popper]

I think the other outer space probe project is more interesting as it actually disproved a lot of hypothesis, we actually learned a lot. SpaceX evidently isn't up to snuff on launch technology. That said, kudos to those who pulled it off. I worked on a laser experiment to go on the Challenger (lead EE) and know what goes into making stuff work right, lots of mundane paperwork that has to be done. Lots of meticulous detail 'hands on' work also. I'm NOT impressed for reason for many of these flights.SS but it does push development of hardware/software.

[bangerjim]

They say there will be tons more pictures sent over the next 16 months! So far out there it takes a long time just to send one. And the thing is not duplex......cannot listen and talk at the same time.

More pix will be very interesting. Hope it becomes a PLANET again after this. They are now discovering there are even more planets (or whatever) farther out there that are orbiting the sun & part of our solar system .

Who knows, mabe they will name the next one Goofy?!?!?!?!?

[waksupi]

"That we were able to get so close to Pluto today is a feat whose probability scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson likened to "a hole-in-one on a two-mile golf shot." He's right."

Did you know Tyson was the driving force to have Pluto declassified as a planet?

[dtknowles]

"That we were able to get so close to Pluto today is a feat whose probability scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson likened to "a hole-in-one on a two-mile golf shot." He's right."

Did you know Tyson was the driving force to have Pluto declassified as a planet?

No I didn't but I am guessing he had a lot of followers.

Tim

[wallenba]

$675 million. Then it cost me about $2 for that very neat photo. I would have payed a few bucks more for some better info too. Some people made money building that thing too.

I have wondered all my life, what it looked like. Now I know, worth it. Now... find me dem aliens!!!

[adrians]

great photo considering the tech on the craft is over ten years old .

[shooter93]

An expensive program no doubt but virtually everyone has benefitted from the technological developments of our space program. We are explorers, always have been and always will be. We most certainly could finance the program if we did something meaningful bout stopping all the fraud and worthless give away programs we have.

[gwpercle]

And if we ever find an inhabited planet are we going to do as usual , invade them, kill them and take it over. Heck yes ! Ask the American Indians about their treatment.

[Artful]

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/15/8971303...s-new-horizons

While the probe previously sent back photos taken during its approach to Pluto, NASA just released the first images taken during the flyby itself. The photo above is a close-up taken near the heart-shaped, light-colored region of Pluto seen in previous photos (which scientists have nicknamed Tombaugh Regio, after Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930).
The image at top shows mountains that are roughly 11,000 feet high, and likely made of water ice. Surprisingly, it doesn't include a single crater. Together, these suggest Pluto might be home to ongoing geologic activity, generating fresh terrain over time.
Pluto, as seen by New Horizons the day before the flyby. (NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI)In a Wednesday press conference, scientists also revealed a high-resolution photo of Pluto's moon Charon, which is covered in cliffs and ridges:
(NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)
They also released the first-ever photo of Pluto's tiny moon Hydra, which appears to be covered in water ice:
(NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)
It's all particularly amazing given that, before this mission, the best photos we had of Pluto showed it as a blurry blob:
(NASA/ESA/M. Buie)
Pluto, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2010. (NASA/ESA/M. Buie)The dwarf planet was simply too small and too far away for us to photograph clearly. New Horizons has changed that, and it has hundreds more photos of Pluto and its moons to be sent back over the coming weeks and months — transforming it from a distant point of light into a new world.



Why it took so long to get the Pluto photos

After nine years and three billion miles of travel, New Horizons flew through the Pluto system in less than an hour — because it wasn't carrying nearly enough fuel to slow down or enter orbit. Naturally, scientists wanted to maximize the amount of images and data the probe could collect during this time.
To do so, a few different aspects of New Horizons' design necessitated breaking contact with Earth. Among other things, the probe has a fixed antenna (so when it pivoted to face Pluto and its moons, it couldn't simultaneously point the antenna back towards Earth) and has limited power and computing capability. All this necessitated a 22-hour period of radio silence surrounding the flyby.
(JHU/APL)
Early this morning, New Horizons began sending photos, but even traveling at the speed of light, it takes about 4.5 hours for those signals to reach Earth. On top of that, the huge distance means the signal is extremely faint, and must be transmitted very slowly: an image that's 1024 pixels wide takes about 42 minutes to come through.
The probe has now sent back a few photos, but it'll take 16 months for it to relay all of its images and scientific data.
The new photos show a mystery

(NASA)
Scientists expected Pluto to be covered in craters — the result of many asteroid impacts over time. Instead, the first high-resolution image they examined showed no craters, but surprisingly tall mountains.
Normally, planets and moons that don't have craters are geologically young, with volcanic or tectonic activity swallowing terrain and creating new landscapes over time. Mission scientists estimate this area is no more than 100 million years old, which is rather young compared to the 4.5 billion years or so Pluto has been in existence.
This activity could also explain the presence of the mountains. But it'd need to be driven by some sort of energy source. In most planets and moons, it's the result of heat left over from the object's formation, or tidal heating — in which a moon is squeezed by the gravity of the larger planet that it orbits, generating energy.
Neither of these are likely going on inside Pluto, spurring the scientists to come up with alternate hypotheses (such as the possibility that there's a subsurface ocean that's gradually freezing over time, releasing heat into the crust). "We now have an isolated small planet that's showing activity after 4.5 billion years," Alan Stern, the mission's principal investigator, said during the press conference. "This sends geophysicists back to drawing boards."

[Artful]

Scientists will use all this data to better understand Pluto and its place in the solar system

(NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)
The spacecraft also collected lots of data on Pluto's temperature, atmosphere, and interactions with the solar wind (the charged plasma released by the sun), as well as the five moons. Combined with the images, they'll paint a complex portrait of a long-mysterious planet.
Already, mission scientists have found a surprisingly varied landscape: some heavily cratered, seemingly-ancient areas, along the lighter, smoother regions seen today. They've also determined that Pluto's especially pure nitrogen atmosphere is gradually leaking out into space — at rates that are somewhat higher than expected.
(NASA/APL/SwRI)
Pluto (left) and its moon Charon shown in false color, to highlight differences in surface materials. The photo was taken July 13.
Meanwhile, scientists confirmed that Pluto has ice caps made of frozen methane and nitrogen. As the dwarf planet comes slightly closer to the sun during its 248-year orbit, these ices warm up and turn into gases; when Pluto cools down, they likely fall back to the ground as snow.
They've also made the first precise measurement of Pluto: it's 1,473 miles in diameter, a bit larger than previously estimated. This makes it slightly bigger than the dwarf planet Eris, and the largest object in the Kuiper belt, a region filled with chunks of rock and ice that orbit the sun past Neptune.
But scientists obviously still have a ton of questions about Pluto's geology, atmosphere, and surface features. They'll hope to answer them with the mountain of data that will come back gradually over the next 16 months.