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History In The Making: NASA's New Horizons Probe Makes Pluto/Charon System Approach Today (*New pics of Pluto/Charon/Hydra Included*)

Mr. Sinister

By Mr. Sinister
in The Tailgate

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PokerPacker

PokerPacker

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I remember that episode! It was a good one.

 

And in Star Trek it seems they use Tachyons as a cure all for so many things.

 

"Captain, I believe if we fire a tachyon pulse directly into the spacetime distortion it may free the enterprise. Don't ask me how, I'm just making **** up as I go and Tachyons sounds pretty cool"

 

"Make it so"

Don't forget the inverse-tachyon pulse, whatever that is.
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MrSilverMaC

MrSilverMaC

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Still completely theoretical. 

 

 

 

 

You two didn't read the fabulous link I posted in my reply :(

Reminds me of the documentary "Evacuate Earth". They interview a bunch of scientists about a scenario where a neutron star is headed on a collision course with Earth. The only means of survival is escaping the planet. It starts with us knowing it'll hit us 75 years in advance. We build an enormous ship that spirals around to create artificial gravity, kind of like the halos in Halo. An artificial ecosystem and habitat fill the incredibly enormous ship. Yet, only a few hundred thousand people are chosen to make the trip to the nearest Earth-like planet. Their great grandchildren will be the ones who are alive when the ship arrives at said planet. Having to leave 99% of humanity on Earth to get incinerated incites worldwide riots and warfare before the inevitable.

 

Yeah, I don't imagine the rest of us would take being deemed not good enough to survive very well considering the lesser things we bristle at being labeled as. That's an Interesting scenario cause it means the rest of the solar system is toast most likely as well, so no hiding out on a moon or anything like that

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The 12th Commandment

The 12th Commandment

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The prospect of faster than light travel is wonderful and I hope it happens some day.  But there is no shortage of exciting and much more likely, at least in the foreseeable future, possibilities within our own system.  

 

Terra forming is another popular sci fi trope but one that actually has possibilities even considering our knowledge now.  I listen to Stephen Hawkings say that our biggest goal as a species should be to populate another world in order to stave off extinction.  Mars or one of the gas giant moons will happen one day if we're not complete morons.  The amount of water we seem to be finding out there is very promising in that regard I think.  Less than a decade for a trip, even if there are hundreds of trips needed and it the whole project takes generations, is something humans can wrap their mind around.  

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Mr. Sinister

Mr. Sinister

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http://scitechdaily.com/data-from-nasas-new-horizons-hints-at-underground-ocean-on-pluto/

 

 

 

Data from NASA’s New Horizons Hints at Underground Ocean on Pluto

 

Scientists believe that the ice flows and water ice mountains revealed by New Horizons help support the idea that an interior ocean may be driving geologic activity on Pluto.

 

Pluto wears its heart on its sleeve, and that has scientists gleaning intriguing new facts about its geology and climate. Recent data from NASA’s New Horizons probe — which passed within 7,800 miles of the surface on July 14 — have revealed striking features on Pluto’s heart-shaped region that indicate the icy dwarf planet may harbor an ocean deep in its interior, according to mission scientists during a July 24 press briefing. They also provided new information about Pluto’s thin atmosphere.

 

“We are amazed to see Pluto as dynamic and active as it is,” said Richard Binzel, a New Horizons co-investigator and professor in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. The latest images of Tombaugh Regio — the heart’s official name in honor of Pluto’s discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh — show evidence of nitrogen ice similar to Earth’s glaciers, which appear to flow around elevated islands at the heart’s edges.

 

Until now, scientists have only seen surfaces like this on active worlds such as Earth and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. “No one dared imagine such a thick and localized buildup of geologically young ices, that even at 40 kelvins [-388 degrees Fahrenheit], have enough viscosity to create local landforms,” he said.

 

More at link

Simulated flyover using close approach images

 

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China

China

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New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto

 

The first color images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue.

 

blue_skies_on_pluto-final-2.png?itok=I4-

 

The haze particles themselves are likely gray or red, but the way they scatter blue light has gotten the attention of the New Horizons science team. “That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles,” said science team researcher Carly Howett, also of SwRI. “A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins.”

 

...

 

In a second significant finding, New Horizons has detected numerous small, exposed regions of water ice on Pluto. The discovery was made from data collected by the Ralph spectral composition mapper on New Horizons.

 

context_map3-final.jpg?itok=u2aVa8Bt

 

Click on the link for the full article

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visionary

visionary

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http://news.yahoo.com/pluto-reveals-variety-rich-colors-stunning-experts-202941602.html

Pluto reveals variety of rich colors, stunning experts

 

Pluto contains a rich variety of colors on its surface, according to observations out Thursday from NASA's New Horizons probe that stunned astronomers.

 

The probe's first published science results revealed dark red parts at the equator of the dwarf planet to lighter and bluer regions at higher latitudes.

Previously experts did not have a clear picture of Pluto's colors.

 

"I was astonished to see such spectacular surface color and geological diversity," said Silvia Protopapa, an assistant research scientist in astronomy at the University of Maryland and part of the New Horizons surface composition team.

 

A new color image of Pluto published in the journal Science was obtained with the spacecraft's Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC).

 

On July 14, New Horizons became the first spacecraft to fly by Pluto, offering scientists an unprecedented view of the dwarf planet.

 

Scientists working on the project have already released most of their observations to the public, but data will continue to pour in for the next year.

 

"The data returned so far show a surprisingly wide variety of landforms and terrain ages on Pluto, as well as variations in color, composition and albedo (surface reflectivity)," NASA said.

 

"Team members also discovered evidence for a water-ice rich crust, multiple haze layers above the surface in Pluto's atmosphere, and that Pluto is somewhat larger and a bit more ice rich than expected."

Part-WAS-Was8973187-1-1-0.jpg

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China

China

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http://news.yahoo.com/pluto-reveals-variety-rich-colors-stunning-experts-202941602.html

 

 

Pluto contains a rich variety of colors on its surface, according to observations out Thursday from NASA's New Horizons probe that stunned astronomers.

 

While I think the photos are amazing and cool, are they really surprised that there are a variety of colors on the surface?  What, did they think Pluto was monochrome?  I think the odds of very few colors are a lot worse than the odds of there being a variety of colors.

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PeterMP

PeterMP

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While I think the photos are amazing and cool, are they really surprised that there are a variety of colors on the surface?  What, did they think Pluto was monochrome?  I think the odds of very few colors are a lot worse than the odds of there being a variety of colors.

 

I think between the combination of it being small (which just eliminates the odds of variation), not having much gravity (so it isn't going to hold onto things in its atmosphere well.  Things that can become gases at those temps over time can escape), and being so far from the sun so always very cold there was an idea that the surface would be pretty consistent.  

 

You might have ice covered parts and non-ice covered parts and so 2 colors associated with that, but there wouldn't be a whole lot of different colors.

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mistertim

mistertim

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While I think the photos are amazing and cool, are they really surprised that there are a variety of colors on the surface?  What, did they think Pluto was monochrome?  I think the odds of very few colors are a lot worse than the odds of there being a variety of colors.

Maybe they just assumed it was a really racist planet.

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visionary

visionary

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-pluto-idUSKCN0WJ2N0?utm_source=twitter

Frigid Pluto is home to more diverse terrain than expected

 

The most detailed look at Pluto's surface to date has revealed an unexpected range of mountains, glacial flows, smooth plains and other landscapes, according to studies released on Thursday.

 

The unprecedented window into the so-called dwarf planet, which orbits the sun like other planets but is smaller, comes via high-resolution photographs from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. The interplanetary space probe made the first-ever visit to Pluto and its five moons last July.

 

Those images, chemical analyses and other data show a complex, geologically active world 3 billion miles from Earth, with an underground ocean and volcanoes that appear to spew ice, five research papers published in this week’s Science journal said.

 

“It’s a pretty wild place geologically,” said planetary scientist William McKinnon of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Another scientist described the diversity of landscapes as "astonishing."

 

How the varied terrain came to be remains a mystery for the distant Pluto, which has an average surface temperature of minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 229 degrees Celsius).

 

Scientists suspect several processes at work, including vaporization of volatile ices, such as nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane, into Pluto’s cold and unexpectedly compact atmosphere.

 

Though smaller than Earth's moon, Pluto likely still has enough internal heat from its formation some 4.5 billion years ago to help maintain its most prominent feature, a smooth, 620-mile (1,000-km) wide, heart-shaped basin known as Sputnik Planum.

 

Relatively young mountains west of Sputnik Planum and mounds to the south are harder to explain. Scientists suspect both rest on blocks of water ice, though how that came to exist on Pluto is unknown.

 

“We are puzzled by almost everything,” said Alan Stern, the New Horizons mission's lead scientist.

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