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Home » Space/Science

Are we getting excited about Pluto yet? July 7, 2015 4:23 pm Robert

No, no, no, I mean the (minor) planet, and the arrival of the New Horizons spacecraft thereat. Closest approach is a week from today, and encounter–high bit rate science–starts in five days.

Like everybody who grew up on science fiction, I’ve internalized a picture of Pluto as a cold forbidding place, dark and monochrome so far from the Sun, relatively featureless as either a rock or ice ball. In short, one of the more boring places in the solar system.

But maybe not. From 12.5 million kilometers out:

Yes, I know the image has been considerably enhanced, and that Pluto does in fact get little sunlight. But it’s the part where I naturally assumed dark=monochrome, just because that’s how my own eyes work with the rods and the cones and the things. I wouldn’t have been surprised by whites, greys, blues, and even greens, but brown? This is going to be a lot more interesting than I’d thought.

  • I'm your Moon by SDG 2015-07-15 13:03:19
    • Brown. by hank 2015-07-10 14:13:34
      • Edge of my seat by podrock 2015-07-08 19:58:16
        • It keeps getting better by Robert 2015-07-09 20:20:51
          • That's beautiful! by podrock 2015-07-09 21:54:26
            • In the cryogenic regime by Robert 2015-07-10 10:08:58
              • No "slow, grazing collisions". by hank 2015-07-10 14:09:50

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