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New Horizons

r4pt0r

By r4pt0r
in Science & Spaceflight

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Robotengineer

Robotengineer

Posted
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Looks astonishingly close to a few of the artists impressions...

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Kryten

Kryten

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the most interesting thing is the dark area near the 'equator ... would be a big ocean of liquid nitrogen?

Similarly to water, you can't have liquid nitrogen at very low pressures, only solid and gas.

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Frida Space

Frida Space

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the atmosphere of Pluto is very dynamic and very little would be enough to get allla minimum pressure ... maybe not a real ocean, but maybe a wetland as the equatorial dunes of Titan...

nitrogen-phase-diagram.gif

This is the phase diagram of nitrogen. When it is closest to the sun (actually a bit later, because of "thermal lag") its atmosphere reaches its maximum pressure of about 10-20 millibars (0,00001-0,00002 atm). Pluto's surface temperature reaches a peak of 55 K (-218° Celsius). It is most probably never liquid.

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smjjames

smjjames

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How far out can they do meaningful scans of mineral makeup? *um, checks if New Horizons has such equipment*

Edit: It doesn't have the ones that I was thinking of (no idea what I was thinking of though), but the infrared through ultraviolet stuff will definetly give clues.

Edited by smjjames
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Frida Space

Frida Space

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Interesting! What program did you use?

Tanto vale parlare in italiano...

Interessante! Quale programma hai usato?

Non l'ho fatta io, ho messo il link sotto :-) A quanto pare ha usato Photoshop

(I didn't process it, I put the link to the source below)

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Frida Space

Frida Space

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Comparing the latest New Horizons and Hubble/ground-based maps of Pluto, this is what I see:

speculando.png

Lots of similarities, but also a few differences. Probably lots of the features and differences are artifacts, but take that central "corridor" in the dark basin for example: it's a very narrow feature and could easily be explained by some sublimation action going on. After all, from what we know Pluto is a pretty dynamic world. I bet that what I just said will turn out to be just stupid speculation, but I don't think it's totally unreasonable.

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georgTF

georgTF

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The most dramatically apropriate outcome would be for the probe to malfunction right now.

All these questions, and no mission scheduled for another 20 something years. At least.

Part of me wants to jinx the probe now.

And think of the amount of bs that will be spewed out by idiots who will claim there are 'faces', alien pyramids, death stars, visitors, and if we're lucky maybe even a mass suicide cult. The potential is enormous!

It's not often that i think science should shove off in the name of entertainment, but the more i think about it, the more my IQ seems to drop.

Die New Horizons?

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smjjames

smjjames

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The most dramatically apropriate outcome would be for the probe to GLUB GLUB GLUB right now.

All these questions, and no mission scheduled for another 20 something years. At least.

Part of me wants to GLUB GLUB GLUB the probe now.

And think of the amount of bs that will be spewed out by idiots who will claim there are 'faces', alien pyramids, death stars, visitors, and if we're lucky maybe even a mass suicide cult. The potential is enormous!

It's not often that i think science should shove off in the name of entertainment, but the more i think about it, the more my IQ seems to drop.

GLUB GLUB GLUB New Horizons?

*Whacks georgTF with a trout for trying to invoke Murphy's law.*

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