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Related: About this forumNew Horizons Returns First of the Best Images of Pluto
NASAs New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the first in a series of the sharpest views of Pluto it obtained during its July flyby and the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades.
Each week the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft transmits data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14. These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel revealing features less than half the size of a city block on Plutos diverse surface. In these new images, New Horizons captured a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains.
These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on planet Earth, said John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and associate administrator for NASAs Science Mission Directorate. New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see."
These latest images form a strip 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide on a world 3 billion miles away. The pictures trend from Plutos jagged horizon about 500 miles (800 kilometers) northwest of the informally named Sputnik Planum, across the al-Idrisi mountains, over the shoreline of Sputnik, and across its icy plains. (To view the strip in the highest resolution possible, click here and zoom in.)
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-returns-first-of-the-best-images-of-pluto
Each week the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft transmits data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14. These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel revealing features less than half the size of a city block on Plutos diverse surface. In these new images, New Horizons captured a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains.
These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on planet Earth, said John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and associate administrator for NASAs Science Mission Directorate. New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see."
These latest images form a strip 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide on a world 3 billion miles away. The pictures trend from Plutos jagged horizon about 500 miles (800 kilometers) northwest of the informally named Sputnik Planum, across the al-Idrisi mountains, over the shoreline of Sputnik, and across its icy plains. (To view the strip in the highest resolution possible, click here and zoom in.)
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-returns-first-of-the-best-images-of-pluto
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New Horizons Returns First of the Best Images of Pluto (Original Post)
muriel_volestrangler
Dec 2015
OP
Pretty clear there are some dynamic processes going on, melting, freezing, sublimation
Warren DeMontague
Dec 2015
#9
Mmm my guess is it would be really cold, better take the extra long underwear and
cstanleytech
Dec 2015
#11
Wilms
(26,795 posts)1. Wow! n/t
msongs
(67,407 posts)2. those ripples look like wind/liquid created dunes like on earth nt
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)9. Pretty clear there are some dynamic processes going on, melting, freezing, sublimation
But probably nitrogen, I think.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)10. I could be wrong but I suspect sand dunes are going to look the similar
all over the universe.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)3. WOW.
I can't be the only one wondering what skiing on nitrogen snow in -400 degree weather is like
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)6. Cold
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)7. Thank you, captain obvious!
Titan smells like farts, too. Just sayin'
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)11. Mmm my guess is it would be really cold, better take the extra long underwear and
a bunch of hot chocolate.
Judi Lynn
(160,542 posts)4. Amazing. Thank you. n/t
byronius
(7,395 posts)5. Good god that is beautiful.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)8. Amazing times we live in, arent they?