New Horizons

[Frida Space]

You're fired.

Ahahah!

Back to seriousness, a new map made by Bjorn Jonsson. I'm guessing he had some problems uploading it and took it down soon after he posted it. I managed to download it, convert it into a GIF an upload it on an image hosting website (I'm writing this in the unlikely case he's reading and he wonders where I got it from).

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I like how the different resolutions are clearly distinguishable.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Frida Space

[Vanamonde]

Still much too early to try to interpret those surface features. Remember: that's how a generation convinced itself that Mars had canals.

[Frida Space]

So here's another website with some metadata of the LORRI raw images. http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/data/nh/index.html

[smjjames]

Still much too early to try to interpret those surface features. Remember: that's how a generation convinced itself that Mars had canals.

At least we won't have to wait a generation or two to get a closer look.

[Technical Ben]

Still much too early to try to interpret those surface features. Remember: that's how a generation convinced itself that Mars had canals.

And trees, and little green men.

[Scotius]

And trees, and little green men.

Actually, our grandfathers preferred them tall and red-dish

Ah, Dejah Thoris Princess Leia has nothing on you, proud daughter of Barsoom.

[Frida Space]

Another animation of Charon, yet again by Bjorn

[Frida Space]

WOWOWOWOWO

Those. Polygonal. Fractures. I. Have. No. Words.

So here's the link instead: www.nasa.gov/feature/new-image-of-pluto-houston-we-have-geology/

[smjjames]

Is it me or do those polygonal features somewhat resemble dried mud cracks? Actually, a better analog might be Europa.

Edit: Subsurface ocean anybody?

[Frida Space]

Is it me or do those polygonal features somewhat resemble dried mud cracks? Actually, a better analog might be Europa.

To me it just looks like it might break in any moment

[smjjames]

Closest approach is in, what, four days, right?

[lajoswinkler]

The lightest cover might be the freshest icy deposit from the last winter. Wow, incredible. Incredible.

edit: What if we're looking at a cryogenic version of a polar cap?

Edited July 10, 2015 by lajoswinkler

[Robotengineer]

WOWOWOWOWO

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-7-10-15_pluto_image_nasa-jhuapl-swri_0.png

Those. Polygonal. Fractures. I. Have. No. Words.

So here's the link instead: www.nasa.gov/feature/new-image-of-pluto-houston-we-have-geology/

Civ 5 anyone? Those look a lot like the tiles from Civ 5...

[SuperFastJellyfish]

The lightest cover might be the freshest icy deposit from the last winter. Wow, incredible. Incredible.

edit: What if we're looking at a cryogenic version of a polar cap?

Yeah, Saturn's polar hexagon is what popped into my mind.

[Hcube]

Wow ! the cracks on the surface make me think of Eeloo ! Who knows, perhaps SQUAD nailed it and Pluto looks just like Eeloo (except for the color of course)

[Frida Space]

Closest approach is in, what, four days, right?

Yes -- as I'm writing this just closer to 3 days than 4! Closest encounter (13695 km / 8509 miles from Pluto's center, roughly 12500 km / 7770 from its surface) is planned for 11:49:57 UTC on July 14th, +/- 100 seconds if I recall correctly. There is a live countdown both on New Horizons JHUAPL's website and on NASA's homepage.

On a side note, I wanted to quote this UMSF user, his words are pure gold:

I'm thinking it's high time we start mass producing New Horizons clones and shotgunning them into the outer solar system.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Frida Space

[Scotius]

"I'm thinking it's high time we start mass producing New Horizons clones and shotgunning them into the outer solar system."

Sounds like a good idea Probe around every planet and moon!

[ChrisSpace]

So close! Just 88 hours left! Hype!

[Frida Space]

A few hours ago, New Horizons should have obtained its last views of the opposite hemisphere of Pluto. The last. We won't see it again up close for how many years? That's sad.

The opposite hemisphere as seen on July 3rd

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^ we might see a bit of it thanks to charonshine but I wouldn't be too confident

[Scotius]

Agh! Not much to see Compared to Triton photos made by Voyager 2 almost 20 years ago, this one looks like squashed potato. Hopefully pictures taken during proper fly-by will be much better.

[Frida Space]

Agh! Not much to see Compared to Triton photos made by Voyager 2 almost 20 years ago, this one looks like squashed potato. Hopefully pictures taken during proper fly-by will be much better.

Just to be clear (because of my bad English I could have misunderstood your message) the photo I posted was taken on July 3rd, today's images of the opposite hemisphere still have to come down. I'm sorry if you had understood that already.

[Kryten]

Agh! Not much to see Compared to Triton photos made by Voyager 2 almost 20 years ago, this one looks like squashed potato. Hopefully pictures taken during proper fly-by will be much better.

It's much better than the Voyager 2 images of Triton's other hemisphere, given it didn't get any.

[Frida Space]

It's getting more and more interesting.

2015-07-09 22:37:05 UTC

5.4M km

[Frida Space]

The same photos of yesterday, taken July 9th UTC (July 10th CEST), colored by Daniel Machacek

[Frida Space]

A tentative map I made of some "landmark" features on Pluto. Only interesting things I found are that the donut scientists were talking about (feature n. 1) appears to have dissolved, whilst there's a new kinda-circular feature (n. 6). Not much more really, but it gives you an idea of how dramatically the resolution is increasing.

By "dissolved" I obviously don't mean literally dissolved, but that it was probably an artifact or something.