New Pluto Pics And Stuff !!!

[WillyT]

Close-up view of mountains on Pluto. There are no visible impact craters, NASA said, suggesting that the dwarf planet may be relatively young.





Found Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/15/pluto-photos-dwarf-planet-nasa_n_7803364.html

[oldandhappy]

1. Wow Wow and Thank you1111

[marym625]

2. K&R!

is right!!!

[mindwalker_i]

3. Methane on Pluto?!

Ok, who farted? And how did you do it when it's, like, 35 kelvin? Wouldn't methane freeze?

[tymorial]

4. I have had the mission website as my homepage for a week

Can't wait to see more.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Yes, this is simply thrilling! Those are WATER-ICE mountains!

NASA's first, educated guess, but it will likely hold up. Ice mountains being pushed up from below, probably from an icy mantel, and, below that, an ocean that is being heated in some way, and a rocky core (hot? maybe).

These are just stupendous findings! They not only throw into question the geology of many of the solar system's moons, as understood thus far, but it once again illustrates that water is everywhere, in our solar system, in our galaxy and in the Universe.

And where there is water, and especially water being heated, life is possible. What is heating the water of Pluto's under-ice ocean? They don't know. Does it have volcanic eruptions, geysers or other phenomena? They're going to look for these now.

The ice moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune also have active geological features, which have been attributed to the tidal pull of the big planets, creating friction and heat. I've read this time and again in articles about these moons. This hypothesis has been, if not entirely overturned, must be completely re-thought. As NASA's chief science investigator Alan Stern said, it is simply NOT true of Pluto. Back to square one on icy planets and moons.

Pluto does NOT have a giant planet pulling it to and fro--yet it is clearly very, very active (not a single crater in this high-res photo, meaning that Pluto's geological activity is swallowing the craters, putting new features over them). Pluto has numerous active features, creating a feast for geologists, climatologists, astrophysicists and others for years to come. The ecstatic grins on the bleary-eyed faces of the Pluto-Charon team said it all. They couldn't stop smiling.

This is only the beginning. The high-res of Pluto released today was of only a 150 mile area. They're going to have high-res (and even higher-res) of the entire sunside of the planet (and lesser res of the dark side). And the same of Pluto's moon Charon, which is also dazzling the scientists. PLUS all the other science that New Horizons successfully conducted on its flyby (spectra, atmosphere, etc.)

On the political side, we need to get this amazing science team further funding to complete the New Horizons mission (into the Kuiper Belt). They are just too good not to be funded! NASA has always boosted our spirits, as a country, when things have been bad, as they often have been over the last three and a half decades (since that horror, Ronald Reagan). We owe them not only for the amazing science and exploration missions they have conducted, often on very limited budgets (like this one), but also for the sheer joy of seeing what human beings at their best can do. They are showing the way, for all of us, but especially for young people, as to what intelligence, cooperation and the highest of goals can accomplish. We can save our own beautiful planet with this spirit. We can ensure a good life and justice for all. We CAN do these things. That is the spirit of NASA.

[AlbertCat]

10. Pluto does NOT have a giant planet pulling it to and fro-

It does have a very big moon, relatively speaking, however.

I wonder how the gravity of these two effect each other. I know the point that they orbit is outside Pluto's mass.

[Peace Patriot]

15. I was wondering the same thing today, but one of the Pluto team answered it...

...I think. I couldn't catch everything they said. I think it was Alan Stern who said that Charon could not produce much (or any?) tidal pull effect on Pluto. And he said definitively that the geological activity on Pluto is NOT tidal-related.

But Charon is relatively big and in a locked orbit (face to face) with Pluto. It's a question that maybe needs to be asked again?

I just found out that New Horizons is on a track to leave the Solar System after it investigates the Kuiper Belt (if it gets funding to do that). Out of the Solar System, like Viking! Wow! We will have TWO spacecraft heading into the Milky Way! I also picked up somewhere that it has lots of fuel (don't know what kind), which means that it could be transmitting data to earth for decades (like Viking) with longer and longer waits for the latest from the spacecraft. (4.5 hours Pluto to Earth and back, for signals, then much longer from the Kuiper Belt and...beyond!)

[Peace Patriot]

18. Just want to make one correction, re New Horizon's fuel reserves.

Apparently it only has enough fuel (whatever the fuel is--I don't know) to be directed to two or so other objects in the Kuiper Belt. THEN it will be on a trajectory out of the Solar System, for which it wouldn't need fuel (once it got boosted). I don't know how the telemetry is powered, nor for how long. So I don't know if it will continue to send information all the way out of the Solar System, like Viking.

[lastlib]

16. that very big moon may not be big enough.....

...to produce geological tides of the sort the moons of Jupiter & Saturn experience. Maybe it still has an effect, but I can't see it having a huge one. But I'm an amateur as much as the rest of us who don't work for NASA.

[ion_theory]

13. Your excitement just got me more excited..thank you nt

[Thespian2]

6. Thanks for the photo

What a brilliant result...so much work by some many...Congrats to them all!!!

[1monster]

7. You forgot the most unsettling one!!

[Lionel Mandrake]

14. If Neptune is destroyed,

we'll know who the culprit is.

[lastlib]

17. That's no moon............

......it's a spaceship...............(you know the rest...)

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. This here be my favorite Pluto pic

[AlbertCat]

9. There's a meth lab on Pluto?????

Ooooh Methane.... never mind.

[kdmorris]

11. I cut out of work early to watch the 3 PM broadcast

Scientists are not great public speakers, but truthfully, it made it fairly awesome because I pretty much geek out on this stuff anyway, so they spoke my language.

[neverforget]

12. I love it!!!!!!

[Panich52]

19. 2 articles from EarthSky, 1 from Discovery on Pluto & Charon

Pluto and Charon Close

Pluto has high, young ice mountains

On Wednesday, scientists began releasing close-up images of the surface of this distant ice world.

http://earthsky.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e56e7a92b1c5790f7343ef95a&id=52ec5ee6df&e=dc13e7b006


Charon’s surface surprisingly youthful and varied

Pluto’s largest moon Charon has cliffs, troughs and a dark marking at its north pole nicknamed 'Mordor' by New Horizons' scientists.

http://earthsky.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e56e7a92b1c5790f7343ef95a&id=18f0c2dc11&e=dc13e7b006

DiscoveryNews
Little Pluto, smaller than Earth’s moon, has a least one giant mountain range, with water ice the only available building material.

READ MORE
http://news.discovery.com/space/pluto-has-ice-mountains-charon-is-active-new-horizons-150715.htm?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dnewsnewsletter