Solar System 10 Things: Looking Back At Pluto

Solar System 10 Things: Looking Back at Pluto

In July 2015, we saw Pluto up close for the first time and—after three years of intense study—the surprises keep coming. “It’s clear,” says Jeffery Moore, New Horizons’ geology team lead, “Pluto is one of the most amazing and complex objects in our solar system.”

1. An Improving View

These are combined observations of Pluto over the course of several decades. The first frame is a digital zoom-in on Pluto as it appeared upon its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. More frames show of Pluto as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. The final sequence zooms in to a close-up frame of Pluto taken by our New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015.

2. The Heart

Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors are enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. The image resolves details and colors on scales as small as 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers). Zoom in on the full resolution image on a larger screen to fully appreciate the complexity of Pluto’s surface features.

3. The Smiles

July 14, 2015: New Horizons team members Cristina Dalle Ore, Alissa Earle and Rick Binzel react to seeing the spacecraft’s last and sharpest image of Pluto before closest approach.

4. Majestic Mountains

Solar System 10 Things: Looking Back At Pluto

Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 780 miles (1,250 kilometers) wide.

5. Icy Dunes

Found near the mountains that encircle Pluto’s Sputnik Planitia plain, newly discovered ridges appear to have formed out of particles of methane ice as small as grains of sand, arranged into dunes by wind from the nearby mountains.

6. Glacial Plains

The vast nitrogen ice plains of Pluto’s Sputnik Planitia – the western half of Pluto’s “heart”—continue to give up secrets. Scientists processed images of Sputnik Planitia to bring out intricate, never-before-seen patterns in the surface textures of these glacial plains.

7. Colorful and Violent Charon

High resolution images of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, show a surprisingly complex and violent history. Scientists expected Charon to be a monotonous, crater-battered world; instead, they found a landscape covered with mountains, canyons, landslides, surface-color variations and more.

8. Ice Volcanoes

One of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft. This feature, known as Wright Mons, was informally named by the New Horizons team in honor of the Wright brothers. At about 90 miles (150 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high, this feature is enormous. If it is in fact an ice volcano, as suspected, it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system.

9. Blue Rays

Pluto’s receding crescent as seen by New Horizons at a distance of 120,000 miles (200,000 kilometers). Scientists believe the spectacular blue haze is a photochemical smog resulting from the action of sunlight on methane and other molecules in Pluto’s atmosphere. These hydrocarbons accumulate into small haze particles, which scatter blue sunlight—the same process that can make haze appear bluish on Earth.

10. Encore

On Jan. 1, 2019, New Horizons will fly past a small Kuiper Belt Object named MU69 (nicknamed Ultima Thule)—a billion miles (1.5 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto and more than four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. It will be the most distant encounter of an object in history—so far—and the second time New Horizons has revealed never-before-seen landscapes.

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photography facts pluto solar system

NGC 1999

Just south of the Orion nebula is a dense area of dust and gas forming stars, in fact, the first Herbig-Haro stars were located here, protostars pushing intense beams of matter out at the poles.

The mystery is the black blob in the white region, a reflective nebula from the star V380 Ori, but what is the dark patch ?

Originally it was thought to be a dense dark cloud of dust, hiding the light, however further analysis has found it is indeed a hole, made to look black in contrast to the bright reflective surroundings.

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stars nebula nasa orion astronomy herbig haro

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night-hides-the-world

5 years ago

Better late than never!

Here’s a comic about a star that erupts water bullets! OoO!

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110613-space-science-star-water-bullets-kristensen/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/star-shooting-water-jets-herschel_n_879211

https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-06/herschel-spots-young-star-spewing-water-jets-interstellar-space?cmpid=tw

https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/young-stars-shoot-epic-quantities-of-water-into-space-study-shows/

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stars Water science educational h2o cosmic funnies

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night-hides-the-world

5 years ago

Jupiter’s storms /NASA

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planets photography nasa astronomy storms jupiter space weather

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night-hides-the-world

5 years ago

Seriously done with life..

Once again, I got rejected from a job the moment i came into an in person interview which is strange since the person was desperate to see me only to cut the inteview short upon noticing I am not what she thought i was (I’m brown skinned.)

This has been happening to me for almost 2 years and despite my 10+ years graphic design experience, I guess it’s not enough, i get the fake smile, the awkqard atmosphere and then “Well…we were really looking for someone who is self motivated and creative….” Even though they already saw my portfolio and resume and just had to see me as I would always be the first one to be interviewed. Afterwards I would get the “Well…we’re still interviewing and …we’ll be in touch” Nonsense. ::sigh::

I guess i’m giving up all together…i’ve applied to over 2000+ job applicaitons and I either get job rejections automatically or situations like this when I actually get my foot in the door for an in person inteview.

Perhaps I wasn’t meant to work for anyone and maybe this is God telling me to focus on Cosmic Funnies as my job.

Whichever it is, I am tired and wanting to give up on life. I work so hard and I feel like i’m getting nowhere.

If you wish for me to make Cosmic Funnies my job, please support me on my Ko-fi so I can actually have food to eat:

https://ko-fi.com/cosmicfunnies

I have a patreon as well: https://www.patreon.com/cosmicfunnies

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https://www.cosmicfunnies.com/starry-shop

Use code STARRYSCHOOL30 (sale ends september 20th)

Check out my latest planner:

They’re on the book shop in both soft and hard cover, 6x9 and 8x10 and it will come with starry emojis deluxe 2 sticker set so you’re getting a nice bundle for one price.

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And if you’re looking to hire a designer, check out my portfolio: https://jackiemoliner.myportfolio.com

And contact me at cosmicfunnies@gmail.com

I don’t emjoy asking for help but sadly I have no choice but to humble myself and ask for help since this world is so cruel that sometimes I just want to off myself. I’m seriously tired of living.

Thanks for your support….and have a great day.

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night-hides-the-world

7 years ago

Enchanted Moon II by Nima Shayesteh

Wolf Moon by miguel aviles - Art of Visuals Collective

Moon on the horizon, Santa Barbara | California (by A. Klioutchnikov)

And unfortunately I can’t find credit for the final photo.