New Horizons takes our first ever half-decent image of Pluto, prepares for flyby - Polidicks

[img]http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/375/cpsprodpb/5056/production/_84166502_pluto_color_new.png[/img] This is the first time we've been able to see Pluto as more than either a few pixels or a blurry sphere. Next week we should get a proper full quality picture as New Horizons flies past. [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33459476[/url] [quote]New Horizons has acquired yet another stunning view of Pluto. The US space agency probe captured the latest image on Tuesday when it was just under eight million km from the dwarf world. As of Thursday, New Horizons had moved to within six million km, heading for its historic flyby next week. The new picture was the first to be returned following the computer hiccup at the weekend that saw the probe briefly drop communications with Earth.[/quote]

Aaaaand the next image is of the probe getting attacked by a swarm of Mi-go.

[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;48157294]What were the older pictures that we had of it?[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://space-facts.com/wp-content/uploads/pluto.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;48157294]What were the older pictures that we had of it?[/QUOTE] pretty sure these, [thumb]https://vintagespace.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/pluto-map-hs-2010-06-a-faces.jpg[/thumb] edit: fuckin' by a second I swear.

New horizons isn't going to orbit Pluto?

[QUOTE=Cmx;48157335]New horizons isn't going to orbit Pluto?[/QUOTE] no it's making a flyby that's closer than some of plutos moons

[QUOTE=Cmx;48157335]New horizons isn't going to orbit Pluto?[/QUOTE] i don't know, but wouldn't that be like trying to orbit a grain of sand in a cyclone?

[QUOTE=Zotobom;48157298][IMG]http://space-facts.com/wp-content/uploads/pluto.png[/IMG][/QUOTE] It's like my very first Hammer project.

soon we will have visual proof that pluto is real and not a smudge on a lens

How exciting! Who would've thought it looks as pretty as it does. The next 5 days are gonna be quite long.

looks like the meat planet.

It's really amazing that we can get probes all the out there to take these pictures, here's hoping charon is actually a mass relay.

[QUOTE=Dysgalt;48157686]It's really amazing that we can get probes all the out there to take these pictures, here's hoping charon is actually a mass relay.[/QUOTE] It took us 10+ years to get here, but we're here nonetheless

Imagine if all this time the first detailed image we get is like cities all over the tiny planet..

[QUOTE=Cmx;48157335]New horizons isn't going to orbit Pluto?[/QUOTE] It's going too fast. At closest approach it's velocity will be 30,800 mph (49,600 kph) relative to Pluto. Gonna pass by at 7,800 miles (12,500 km) and get some amazing images. This is what you can expect the images it'll return, and when it'll return them. [t]http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/images/9-small-bodies/2015/20150623_voyager_simulations_nep_data_ver2.jpg[/t] More info on that here: [URL]http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/06240556-what-to-expect-new-horizons-pluto.html[/URL] edit: fun fact: New Horizons is the first spacecraft to launch directly into a solar escape trajectory and the fastest to leave earth. It passed the orbit of the moon in only 9 hours.

[QUOTE=Cmx;48157335]New horizons isn't going to orbit Pluto?[/QUOTE] Nope, considering the speed they had to launch the thing at to get it there in only 10 years (and Pluto's small mass), it would take way too much fuel to slow it down.

J-Just because we threw a probe at you doesn't mean you're a planet! We just had one available and thought it'd be fun! [sp]Jeeeeez[/sp]

[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;48159548]J-Just because we threw a probe at you doesn't mean you're a planet! We just had one available and thought it'd be fun! [sp]Jeeeeez[/sp][/QUOTE] Pluto is and always will be a planet.

[QUOTE=Pelf;48159150] fun fact: New Horizons is the first spacecraft to launch directly into a solar escape trajectory and the fastest to leave earth. It passed the orbit of the moon in only 9 hours.[/QUOTE] Does this mean it's going to pass up voyager? in terms of distance from earth?

Nope, no current probe will ever overtake voyager

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;48159911]Pluto is and always will be a planet.[/QUOTE] until it's reclassified as something else to better describe itself and more detail what a planet really is.

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;48159911]Pluto is and always will be a planet.[/QUOTE] No it isn't.

This probe has been flying for so long, that when it was launched, Pluto was a planet.

Here's some new photos: [IMG]http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto_charon_150709.png?itok=m41FicQY[/IMG] New Horizons was about 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Pluto and Charon when it snapped this portrait late on July 8, 2015. Most of the bright features around Pluto’s edge are a result of image processing, but the bright sliver below the dark “whale,” which is also visible in unprocessed images, is real. [IMG]http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/nh-pluto_charon_color_final.png?itok=7KZrg7mw[/IMG] This is the same image of Pluto and Charon from July 8, 2015; color information obtained earlier in the mission from the Ralph instrument has been added. Credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI If you want up to date info, you can always go to NASA: [url]http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-and-charon-new-horizons-dynamic-duo[/url] [QUOTE=LagMonster!!!!;48160194]This probe has been flying for so long, that when it was launched, Pluto was a planet.[/QUOTE] So, don't judge a rock by it's orbit?

This is fucking great. It's weird thinking how when I was a kid I always thought Pluto would look blue.

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;48159911]Pluto is and always will be a planet.[/QUOTE] Pluto identifies as a transplanet, please refrain from calling it a planet as it is triggering. [QUOTE=matt000024;48160277]This is fucking great. It's weird thinking how when I was a kid I always thought Pluto would look blue.[/QUOTE] I always thought it would be a giant white ball of ice, not brown at all.

If we called pluto a planet, we'd have to call dozens of other objects planets as well. It would lose all meaning. There's nothing that differentiates pluto from all the other dwarf planets except that we found it before them.

[QUOTE=Bradyns;48160242] So, don't judge a rock by it's orbit?[/QUOTE] That sounds like a fair statement. I don't think this flyby is going to change Pluto's classification. I think if we find some larger bodies in the Kuiper belt like some astronomers suspect we will the IAU might consider it. The condition that keeps Pluto from being a planet is that it can not clear the neighborhood around its orbit. But there is so much shit out there that I would assume that even a large body wouldn't really be able to clear its orbit. If that is the case, they might ditch that condition for another.

Here's another fun fact. Pluto still hasn't completed a full orbit since we discovered it. And it won't until 2178

[QUOTE=LagMonster!!!!;48160380]That sounds like a fair statement. I don't think this flyby is going to change Pluto's classification. I think if we find some larger bodies in the Kuiper belt like some astronomers suspect we will the IAU might consider it. The condition that keeps Pluto from being a planet is that it can not clear the neighborhood around its orbit. But there is so much shit out there that I would assume that even a large body wouldn't really be able to clear its orbit. If that is the case, they might ditch that condition for another.[/QUOTE] They might have to do a full revision and start classifying them in "classes" like we do to stellar bodies.