Who else is excited about Pluto?

[Jimmy Doug]

Yeah but you did have longer to plan-it.

And now I have to take off, giving me yet more time.

 

[jonny jeez]

And now I have to take off, giving me yet more time.

While you're out, pick up a crater beer to celebrate.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Of course I am excited, it is always great to see a new world!!

That said, 16 months to get all the data is it?? I wont get totally mad all at once then....

 

[jonny jeez]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33543383

nice video explaining discoveries that have already been made about Pluto, from the images.

 

[classic33]

Of course I am excited, it is always great to see a new world!!

That said, 16 months to get all the data is it?? I wont get totally mad all at once then....

16 months to get the data from the period it was out of contact. Roughly twelve hours.

 

[Jimmy Doug]

So, New Horizons has flown past Pluto and is now plunging deep into the Kuiper Belt. Over the next 16 months or so the scientists will be trawling through the masses of data it will have sent back, and we're certainly going to learn some amazing things.
I hate to sound cocky, but I wanted to conclude this thread by quoting myself from the first post:

As a kid I'd always felt there was something special about Pluto, that if we could somehow see it we'd sit up and gasp, 'Wow - this is more than just a cold, grey piece of rock in space!'

The ten-year-old in me feels vindicated! Water ice mountains 3500 metres high, nitrogen and methane snow, an atmosphere that it shares with Charon - its huge (and insanely interesting) moon, a mysterious red spot on Nix that no-one can yet explain, glaciers of nitrogen .... At the current time, only around 5% of the data has been received - how much more excitement can we all take?! Already, Pluto has shown itself to be far, far more than a cold, grey, dead rock in space. It's a geologically active world, one of the most awesome objects that mankind has ever seen in space. As Alan Stern said: it really does look like the Solar System left the best to last.
Here are some more photos, in case you haven't seen them!

An enhanced colour image of Pluto taken on New Horizon's approach

As New Horizons looked back on Pluto, it took this stunning photo showing the planet's atmosphere.

Jelly-bean-shaped Nix and rubber-ducky-shaped Hydra

The red pole of Charon is thought to be a result of Pluto actually sharing its very extended atmosphere with its disproportionated-sized moon. In fact, scientists now say that Charon and Pluto are binary pairs, rotating around a point off Pluto - the first such system ever observed.

And to finish:

 

[classic33]

New pictures released
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-pluto-images-from-nasa-s-new-horizons-it-s-complicated/

 

[Jimmy Doug]

New pictures released
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-pluto-images-from-nasa-s-new-horizons-it-s-complicated/

The pictures are AMAZING! Just when we thought Pluto had finished surprising everyone!

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Latest pictures are through. There's no need for words:

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Wonder what that concentric banding is.

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Wonder what that concentric banding is.

The atmosphere, if you're referring to the banding around the planet in the first and last picture.
What I love about that last photo: if you click on it, you can just see a mountain rising above the horizon. The cyclist in me says: that looks like a great climb!

 

[Tin Pot]

So frustrating that I can't go there.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

The atmosphere, if you're referring to the banding around the planet in the first and last picture.
What I love about that last photo: if you click on it, you can just see a mountain rising above the horizon. The cyclist in me says: that looks like a great climb!

Yep - I get it that it's banding in the atmosphere. Just asking what creates it like that. Is it dust, icey something or...... ? It does suggest that the atmosphere is fairly stable else the banding would get washed out.
On the climbing - it would be a doddle in such low gravity wouldn't it?. If you pedaled too furiously you'd go into orbit

 

[Jimmy Doug]

Nasa has just released the highest resolution photo of Pluto yet. Click on the image below.

 

[Fnaar]

Hey, we's all into Mars now... get with it, grandad!