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Space & Planetary Science

Pluto Comes Into Focus

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
July 11, 2015
Filed under
Pluto Comes Into Focus

Houston, We Have Geology
“It began as a point of light. Then, it evolved into a fuzzy orb. Now in its latest portrait from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft Pluto is being revealed as an intriguing new world with distinct surface features, including an immense dark band known as the “whale.” As the newest black and white image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) appeared on the morning of July 10, members of the science team reacted with joy and delight, seeing Pluto as never before. There will no doubt be many similar moments to come. New images and data are being gathered each day as New Horizons speeds closer to a July 14 flyby of Pluto, following a journey of three billion miles.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

7 responses to “Pluto Comes Into Focus”

  1. Komentaja Info says:
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    One expectation is that Pluto would be “Tritonesque” and that appears to be so.

    • Spacenut says:
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      I definitely think Pluto will be a very Triton like world, however I wonder exactly how Charon will compare? Will it have the same Ice world look or will it be more “sterile” looking like our moon?

  2. Michael Spencer says:
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    I will be the first to say it- this image is a huge disappointment to everyone not some sort of space nut. I find it absolutely fascinating.

    There’s a stunning amount to learn from the image but it won’t be above the fold in the local paper. In fact I predict serious questions about how much it cost to acquire the image.

    Superficially it’s about as interesting as Ganymede. Which is to say, not much, at least to the ordinary taxpayer. It’s not Io or Europa.

    Those geometric forms, though, are going to ignite the same crazies who see great glass structures on the moon and faces on Mars. You heard it here first.

    • Neal Aldin says:
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      Your comments are premature.

      The vehicle at the point this picture was taken was still 3 million miles out, 2 dozen times the distance between earth and moon. While there are some color variations, no one yet knows what we are looking at. You are looking at an image with resolution not much better than Mars observed by telescope from earth.

      As far as media coverage and human interest-its the greatest I have seen since the terror of the Mars landing a couple of years ago-and so far no one has seen very much.

      Over the next 2 days we will see much more.

  3. mfwright says:
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    Not that long ago, we only saw Pluto as a point of light. Now we have geologists, from professional to self taught amateurs, will not be getting much sleep for the next few weeks!