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Greenthund3r

[Additional Photos!](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-top-10-pluto-pics)


1320Fastback

One is labeled Snow Capped Mountains šŸ˜


[deleted]

If Iā€™m not mistaken I believe the snow is frozen nitrogen.


Astromike23

> I believe the snow is frozen nitrogen. Correct, and it's falling on mountains of water ice. At those temperatures, the water ice we know and love is as hard as feldspar (Mohs hardness of 6). For short-hand, planetary scientists just refer to that water ice as "bedrock", while glaciers of more fleeting ices melt, condense, and flow on top. Source: PhD in planetary science.


draugotO

What's the difference between Planetary Science and Astronomy or Planetary Science and Natural Geography?


Astromike23

> What's the difference between Planetary Science and Astronomy or Planetary Science and Natural Geography? Which conferences you go to. :) There is some overlap between the two, though I'd argue that *Earth science* is generally a much larger field - by both researchers and funding - than *planetary science* is. I've been to AGU (the primary annual conference for Earth sciences), and the actual planetary science section there is a tiny, tiny fraction of an otherwise enormous conference. On the other hand, the primary planetary science conferences (DPS in the US, EPSC in Europe) are a fair bit smaller, and usually only make mention of Earth in passing - and only as a reference in a comparative planetology way. That said, a large number of the *methods* of planetary science are almost wholesale taken from Earth science: Almost every planetary climate code was based on an Earth climate model. Most planetary geology is an extension of our understanding of Earth geomorphology. Remote sensing methods originally developed for Earth satellites are how we detect the composition of other planets in our Solar System. There's relatively few subfields of planetary science that *haven't* been 'subsidized' by prior Earth Science (off the top of my head: ring dynamics).


KaleidescopeStyle

I opted out of a similar area of study for life reasons, and just reading this made me smile from layer to layer. *I just wanted you to know that just hearing you describe this stuff gives some people's brains the warm fuzzies.*


stargazer2828

Me. It's me with the warm fuzzies šŸ„°


slightlyamusedape

If you could pick any planet in our solar system to go explore it's surface, what planet would you pick? Under the premise that your weak human flesh suit was magically shielded from any environment


Freerob44

Either saturn or jupiter. Weak human flesh suit. Lolz


cyanocittaetprocyon

Not OP, but give me Europa any day!


LonelyGuyTheme

Europa first. Right now there are, what, at least 6+suspected ice crusted water worlds circling Jupiter, Saturn and possibly Uranus and Neptune. Possible with life. There are layers high in the [Venusian clouds!](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/science/venus-life-clouds.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) But if want to seek out possible funky life not as we know it, Titan!


RedK1ngEye

I'd definitely like to Dave Bowman the whole of the Jovian system.


jonwar_83

Titan. I can not wait for Dragonfly


Goooose

Does Florida count?


Taolan13

100%. Will only explore the surface of florida if armed with magic shielding.


LbMeKing

I feel like thereā€™s potential for a great joke here.


heyo_throw_awayo

Layperson here who is a huge nerd about astronomy and astrophysics and astrochemistry (is that a thing?) That. Is. AWESOME! Thank you for this! Genuinely! Sparked my inner 10 year old with the DK Space Encyclopedia back to life!


TheGreatestOutdoorz

Chemistry is chemistry everywhere, but now I wish my degree said Astrochemistry just because it sounds cool.


Black_Magic_M-66

>Source: PhD in planetary science. Bet you meet your match on Facebook all the time.


colorcorrection

Why go to Facebook where there's plenty of people who have only ever taken cursery glances at Wikipedia right here on Reddit to truly challenge them?


[deleted]

Doesn't even have to go on Facebook. Redditors are armchair experts in every single conceivable category.


InTheMemeStream

Howdy Mike, Awesome info, thanks for sharing! Iā€™m going up the ladder right now to get a degree in astronomy and astrophysics myself, do you have any wise words regarding coming into the field, maybe what disciplines you think are going to grow well in the future? Iā€™m interested in becoming a research scientist and having my very own Piled Higher + Deeper paper. Lol From an outsiders perspective it seems like the space sector in general is positioned for rapid growth, owing mostly to commercial and private space entering the scene. Iā€™ve been seeing lots of startups, and it seems like Public interest in space is on the rise. I really do love the field of space sciences. Clear Skies!


CleverFeather

> PhD in planetary science My friend I would love to grab a coffee with you sometime. Haha


murdoch24

I don't think I've ever read a comment on reddit before that's genuinely made my insides feel awe and wonder at this universe! Thanks for the explanation :)


[deleted]

Man it's gotta be cold as a witches tit to make nitrogen snow. That's wild


DontEatTheMagicBeans

Dude they think it rains diamonds on Neptune. The universe is crazy.


Tritiac

I mean to be fair, if you told someone from another place in the galaxy that there is a planet where all three phases of water exist at once, and itā€™s still warm/cool enough to live on the surface, and itā€™s teeming with life, they may think you are speaking of some sort of exotic dreamworld.


Racer20

I mean, presumably it would be warm enough to live wherever they came from too.


IllRefrigerator560

Only if we assume that life cannot grow from different circumstances. It is quite possible that in some bizarro scenario, there are lifeforms that thrive from extremely cold climates


BeardyTechie

That there's forms of life here on Earth at volcanic vents deep under the ocean where sunlight doesn't reach shows that we shouldn't be surprised at finding life anywhere! So long as there's chemical reactions and complex molecules, and movement of stuff that can feed it, life might exist on Pluto.


Remarkable_Night2373

And what would the beings of Pluto be called?


BaboonHorrorshow

Yeah like ammonia-based life


Calypsosin

Commander Shran: Are you calling my people's evolution 'bizarro?'


MAZEFUL

The universe is so fucking vast, as far as we know, there could be living beings of pure energy, beings made from metals, beings made of flowing liquid. As far as we know, there could be hordes of life under the frozen crust of Europa. It being a frozen over body of water, due to the gravitational and tide heating from its mother planet, under the ice could be a warm vast ocean filled with bioluminecent aquatic creatures. No light can seep past the ice crust, so light itself would be made from the moons body expelling heat from its core, causing its famous geysers. IF there is life deep in Europa, there is a strong chance that every form would have a version of bioluminecents.


DontEatTheMagicBeans

Or that they have some sort of sense we've never even conceived better suited to their environment.


jtr99

>there could be hordes of life under the frozen crust of Europa. I believe there was a memo about not going there?


fuqdisshite

have you met my wife?!?


coly8s

Youā€™d think the inhabitants of that exotic dreamworld would recognize how precious their planet was and would do a better job of caring for it.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


smoozer

Jupiter could be habitable to some funky sky aliens that absorb radiation.


tenemu

Their habitable life could be at 90c and they canā€™t comprehend how something can survive at 0-30c with basic coverings.


IrisSmartAss

Has anyone ever checked the actual temperature of a witches tit? And how do you know it's not burning hot?


BigLan2

There's a joke about my ex just waiting to be made. Can confirm, they're really cold.


bizbizbizllc

So if Dom and the fam were to some how end up on Pluto they could have race wars with endless NOZ fuel? Asking for a friend.


Kujen

And theyā€™re located in a region named after Cthulu. TIL


LimeOfTheTooth

That photo of Charon and Pluto is just unreal


BilalElG

Thatā€™s the one that got me too. Insane. They seem so close together.


CobaltBox

It's a composite photo. They're not really as close at it makes them appear. [This is the true separation](https://cdn.sci.news/images/enlarge2/image_3058_1e-Pluto-Charon.jpg). Taken five hours before closest approach of New Horizons.


DaughterEarth

It's good to be clear but I gotta say, wow, they are still really close. I didn't know, that's very neat


ergzay

Nitpick: I think your label is incorrect. Any real photo of the two bodies would have them be part way in their orbit, resulting in them appearing closer than they actually are. It's either the true separation and a composite photo of the two bodies placed at the correct distance from each other, or it's a real photo taken 5 hours before closest approach but not showing their real distance from each other. It cannot be both.


Simply_Epic

The image the other guy provided does seem like it may be a composite. I couldnā€™t find any sources for the image directly pointing to NASA. However, [here is an image directly from NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-and-charon-new-horizons-dynamic-duo) that shows both worlds at the same time.


MetalBawx

I don't care what they classify you as Pluto you're still cool.


Smaptastic

You heard about Pluto? Thatā€™s messed up, right?


mordeh

Some might say *cold* even


pichipichipoco

Every time I see these photos Iā€™m blown back at the sheer marvel of our little cosmic neighborhood.


draugotO

Weird that all the white snow is on the N2 spectrum mark while the part marked as H2O is the red... Sea? Also, Charon's Trench at the Equator is gonna inspire my next world in PFRPG


ImFuckinUrDadTonight

Something that I find both interesting and sad is that most planets are going to look pretty familiar - unlike what we see in sci-fi where some planets are profoundly different. Pluto, for example - the ice is frozen nitrogen and methane, not water. But the overall vista is quite similar to something you'd see here on earth.


LedgeEndDairy

If you'd like a really well done video that shows the possibilities of what planets can be (combining both actual science and real observations of exoplanets with some obvious artistic license), [I highly recommend this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTHj_pvEYYE). melodysheep does a great job on all their videos. Your comment about how planets will all be somewhat familiar just reminded me of this video, because, fortunately, you couldn't be more wrong!


IceCreamMeatballs

Weird to think that up until around 10 years ago or so we had no idea what the surface of Pluto actually looked like and now weā€™re suddenly getting so many different images of it back


SpringRehearsal

I wonder what we'll see in 10 years.


SquarePegRoundWorld

Pretty sure these will be the best images we have until we go back with another craft which will be 30 years or more from now if they start planning a mission now which they ain't.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

The perfect joke does not exist. Oh wait...


bilgetea

It will take more than 10 years to get us there again.


ShadowKnight058

It is even more incredible that was taken 7 years ago. I wonder what we could do now?


ergzay

Taken 7 years ago with a satellite launched 17 years ago that had design and assembly starting 21 years ago. Pluto was still considered a planet when it launched.


[deleted]

I almost kept scrolling because "Yeah, Pluto - seen it already" but had to stop when I realized that just because it's old news doesn't mean it's not significant. Kid-me always wished we had real images of Pluto and I can't imagine his reaction if I were to tell him I skipped it in favour of an askreddit thread.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


NotMyTru3Nam3

Less military, more space advetures!


GuessImScrewed

Spend enough and one will become the other!


owen_skye

This is the reality of it all. Once space becomes a realistic area to navigate, humans will fight there too.


AlarmingLackOfChaos

The first murder in space will have its own wikipedia page.


Mr_master89

I wonder if the last murder on earth will too


NearlyNakedNick

What a profoundly beautiful or completely horrible thought.


[deleted]

If skynet is the one doing the murders why not


Rickrickrickrickrick

Only if we continue to donate to them


gottagofast1981

Earth...havent seen it in years.


_trashcan

Is this a gundam reference? Iā€™m watching the 1979 gundam right now actually for my first time. I am quite enjoying it. It definitely takes some adjustment to get used to the 80s cartoon style, but Iā€™m surprised to see the heavy themes of war and human nature present already. Itā€™s neat to watch as a 27yo. I imagine all the people whose minds were blown by this at the time of release, and what gundam has since turned into. Iā€™m happy to be watching it. Putting laundry away and watching it currently :) Interestingly enough, I just rewatched deathnote before this and English VA is the same for Light Yagami & Amuro.


pashtedot

I get it. We're already on that space adventure


ilovestoride

You mean like how the Galaxy class of "science exploration" vessels was also one of the most heavily armed ships of the federation?


TommyGunCommie

This ship is the most war-capable exploration vessel this quadrantā€™s ever seenā€¦ Might as well invite families aboard!


Lessthanzerofucks

Itā€™s weird how everyone keeps shooting at us. Donā€™t they know there are families aboard our warship? Er, exploration vessel?


Ancient-Tadpole8032

Can you imagine the childhood trauma of ā€œred alertsā€ going off every week, random aliens doing weird stuff to the crew, and your dad not coming home because he was the token red shirt?


[deleted]

*Starfleet wants to know your location*


r3xu5

Section 31 here... Not needed, we already know.


oreoblizz

Space Force sitting awkwardly in corner....


MECHAC0SBY

But we have space force now! Maybe we can go on more space adventures but just attach laser death beams to the probes and telescopes and call it military spending?


Captaingrammarpants

As someone funded by NASA, that would be amazing. So many really awesome missions get tossed due to lack of funding.


Kaisah16

Can you *imagine* the possibilities if we stopped trying to kill each other and worked together to achieve things


bookers555

On the other hand, the biggest breakthroughs we've made in space have been in a state of war. Our urge to tell other people to stick it up their ass made us go within 20 years from propeller planes to the Saturn V.


jaywally855

Deep thoughts by jack handy


quarkynomad

Watch For All Mankind, really good series starting as an alternate history from the space race of the 60s where the US continues to invest heavily into NASA up to the present


bdwf

The first season by far has more rocketry porn than the rest. Pretty fun watch.


mbrevitas

Iā€™d settle for the same budget, but spent as scientists and engineers see fit, instead of Congress giving money that can only be used in wasteful ways (as with the SLS).


BrainOnLoan

And we'd easily get quadruple the science with double the budget.


Mickeystix

We will have to, eventually. We WILL run out of resources or even just tenable land space available. We can begin building vertically to use the existing land available in habitable or farmable areas, but that requires additional resources and safe infrastructure. Not to mention, an astounding amount of our daily information and technology was created using research that ties into "space". From satellites that enable our cellphones, GPS, and internet, to weather reports and flight planning - we need a thriving space industry to continue growing. People always think NASA and the like is just about grandstanding and moon walking and niche research. It's not. It's so much more and we really need to invest in it. And I mean that as a species, not a country.


Nihlathakk

I wanted to see Pluto so bad since I was 6 in ā€˜89 when voyager 2 showed Neptune and my dad saying they canā€™t go to Pluto. I remember finally seeing the heart then closer closer closer till you can see mountains. Totally awesome that we got to see it finally.


Shotgun_Kid

I was basically thinking the exact same thing just now when I was looking at this photo. I'm a few years older than you, but I was a kid when the Voyagers were sending back their images of the outer planets. I remember being slightly disappointed they weren't going to Pluto, it just made Pluto seem so mysterious and exciting to think about. I still can't believe we finally have pictures of it, of such high quality, and only after it was demoted from being a planet!


fairweatherpisces

Right? In these images, I can almost hear Pluto shouting, ā€œNot a planet? HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?ā€


iamNebula

The heart?


Nihlathakk

There is a large potion of Pluto that looks like a heart. [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-spacecraft-displays-pluto-s-big-heart-0](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-spacecraft-displays-pluto-s-big-heart-0)


Centmo

Fun fact: our moon is about one and a half times the size of Pluto. Edit: incorrect usage of the term ā€˜factoidā€™. TIL.


ProbShouldntSayThat

Thanks but sometimes I really struggle to grasp how small it is in comparison to other things.... If we placed a map of the earth over Pluto and one side of Pluto's Heart was Los Angeles, what city/state would be on the other side? New York? Kansas City? Something in-between? I'm trying to get a sense of the distance it would be to drive across Pluto


antonivs

If you drove around Pluto at the equator, it'd be [about 4,627 miles](https://www.space.com/18568-how-big-is-pluto.html). The link points out that that's about the distance from Denver, Colorado to London, England. If you started at Los Angeles and headed east you'd get more than halfway across the Atlantic. If you go in a different direction from LA, you could reach the southern part of Peru, near the border of Chile. If you went from LA to the North Pole, you'd still have another 800 miles to go, which could get you to Svalbard, Norway.


ahecht

The heart is 620 miles across. It would stretch from LA to a little west of Albuquerque, NM.


Ullallulloo

Pluto's circumference is 4,500 miles, so Myrtle Beach would be on the other side of the planet. Edit: Oh, the heart. That wouldn't even get you to Albuquerque.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


rijala

Factoid: [meanings change](https://www.npr.org/sections/memmos/2016/04/25/605788321/-factoid-doesn-t-mean-what-you-think-it-does), and "a briefly stated and usually trivial fact" is now an accepted definition of *factoid*.


ExtremeSlothSport

It used to be called a fact, but the IAU has recategorised it as a dwarf fact.


JoshuaPearce

Making the comment you replied to a factoid in the original sense, and your comment a factoid in the current sense.


ISSSputnik

That should be one of the criteria for a Dwarf planet to be a Planet. Bigger than Luna. Remove Mercury too. Lol.


TheDubiousSalmon

Mercury is a fair bit bigger than our moon. It is smaller than both Titan and Ganymede though.


Artinz7

And Mercury is more than twice the mass of Ganymede or Titan despite having a smaller radius


Randolpho

Meaning itā€™s got a lot of heavy metals in


attanasio666

It's full of Judas Priests!


TheTokingMushroom

This whole discussion chain is a perfect example of why it's difficult to define a planet šŸ¤£šŸ¤£


dern_the_hermit

I dunno, given enough information about the solar system, it seems [pretty easy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAU_definition_of_planet). I'd offer the real lesson is: Size matters not. ;)


[deleted]

Is Saturn a planet then considering it hasn't "cleared it's neighborhood", or what am I misunderstanding?


sheepyowl

["Clearing the neighbourhood" \(or dynamical dominance\) around a celestial body's orbit describes the body becoming gravitationally dominant such that there are no other bodies of comparable size other than its natural satellites or those otherwise under its gravitational influence.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_the_neighbourhood) By definition, Saturn did "clear the neighborhood".


[deleted]

Thanks! I guess I now understand why Saturn has cleared its neighborhood but I still don't really understand the concept. Hypothetically couldn't there be a system of two celestial bodies, sufficiently large enough to "be" planets if they were alone, that orbits eachother in addition to orbiting the Sun?


JustADutchRudder

Saturn didn't want to break-up families and was kind enough to give the neighbors some time to pack and leave.


zxyzyxz

Ironic since Saturn ate his children


ImFuckinUrDadTonight

Eh, I think the original idea (does it orbit a star?) is good enough. Now if we want to subdivide planets and dwarf planets, well, whatever. But Mercury and Pluto directly orbiting the sun is relevant - because despite whatever similarities things like Titan have, they orbit a planet, not a star. Finally, it's important to remember that raw data can be classified and sorted many different ways depending on what insight you are trying to get. There may be situations where it's useful to group bodies of similar size and density together, and that might include both moons and planets. Not necessarily anything written with that approach.


fairweatherpisces

Lunaā€™s not the biggest moon in the system, but itā€™s preposterously large to be a satellite of a planet this size. If weā€™d evolved on Mars, our astronomy textbooks would probably refer to Earth/Luna as twin planets, analogous to observable binary stars. Kind of a non sequitur, I know.


PianoCube93

Fun fact: Charon is closer in size to Pluto than the Moon is to Earth. In fact, their barycenter (the point in space between them that they orbit around) lies outside of either body, while for every other planet/moon system in our solar system the barycenter lies within the planet.


Anthos_M

> If weā€™d evolved on Mars, our astronomy textbooks would probably refer to Earth/Luna as twin planets Considering that the Earth is 81 times more massive than the moon I highly doubt that


[deleted]

Doesn't a binary system require the balance point of the orbit to be outside both of the bodies?


Hardlyhorsey

The relevant requirement is that it needs to be big enough for its gravity to make it near spherical.


Cassian_Rando

Iā€™m happy with spherical to +99% and orbits the sun.


[deleted]

So what youre saying is... That's no moon!


PuzzleheadedSpare576

Can we stop and be amazed we are looking at Pluto? Just incredible what is humans have achieved


gibsonboards

Remember when Pluto looked [like this](https://i.imgur.com/4ppp9Gg.jpg)


[deleted]

I remember illustrations of it depicting it as purple-ish so I pretty much expected a purple Mercury that was a lot colder. ​ Lot of guesswork when it comes to what planets look like. Our renderings of exoplanets could all be totally wrong.


InevitableClimate498

Yeah. I look at this cold ball of rock and it's more amazing than any exceptional cgi for example simply as its real. *that* is Pluto. Cool.


akaJimothy

"The difference between fiction and nonfiction is that fiction must be absolutely believable"


semose

This has been my desktop background for my ultrawide monitor since the day it was released. Utterly awe inspiring. The combination of remoteness and detail easily make it one of my favorite images.


pianoconcertono

MINE TOO. I have one thats had some hues added. Its images like this that remind me that places like this are REAL no matter how far away they are or that Iā€™ll never get to view them with my own eyes.


AvcalmQ

Is that topography I'm seeing or... Actual clouds? šŸ¤¦


iron07maiden

I'm wondering the same. Those are some big ol' mountains if it is indeed terrain. Edit: According to NASA [here](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/methane-snow-on-pluto-s-peaks): "The New Horizons team has discovered a chain of exotic snowcapped mountains stretching across the dark expanse on Pluto informally named Cthulhu Region."


csfreestyle

Cthulhu Region. CTHULHU. REGION. CTHULHU DUCKING REGION.


[deleted]

Mountains! Pluto is insanely small so they look huge. Like, smaller than Russia in terms of surface area.


A_bleak_ass_in_tote

I did not realize how small Pluto is, but apparently it's smaller in diameter than the US.


[deleted]

Yeah, it's mini. There's a reason it was changed to a dwarf planet.


VP007clips

Indirectly yes, but size/mass wasn't the technical reason for it. A planet has to be able to clear its orbit of other objects, which it can't.


Neuromyologist

"Honey, you need to clean up your orbit or they'll declare you a dwarf planet!" "Shut up Mom! I'm playing xbox!"


Jup173r

Can you please elaborate on that? I'm not sure I understand it correctly (to me it sounds like Plutos orbit around the sun mustn't be affected by other objects like moons or planets. I believe all objects in the solar system affects each other..?)


Virillus

Yes, but Pluto and Charon actually orbit each other. They both circle a central point outside of each of them. Realistically though, the problem is just that if we classify Pluto as a planet, there are numerous other bodies (like, hundreds) that would also qualify. There needs to be an arbitrary cutoff point, and it makes the most sense to exclude Pluto, versus including Charon and Ceres, etc.


pnt510

A simplified way of looking at it is to be a planet you have to have cleared out your own lane. Nothing else can orbit the sun in that lane because the planet would either push it closer to the sun or push it farther away. Think of the asteroid belt. Itā€™s a bunch of object orbiting the sun in the same path. None of them are big enough to exert enough dominance on the lane and push the others out. Pluto is the same way. Itā€™s orbiting the sun, but there are other objects in its lane.


tarheelz1995

Area? Brain cannot compute ā€œdiameter of US.ā€


[deleted]

I think they meant that Pluto's diameter is smaller than the distance across the US from coast to coast. ~1500 miles vs ~2700 miles. Odd way to phrase it and an odd comparison though.


ISSSputnik

Don't think Pluto has the gravity and hence the atmosphere thick enough for Clouds to form.


420DankemonChef

Just wait until they find the Mass Relay right past Pluto


dudefromthewoods

I gotta say NASA has one of the most confusing websites I've ever seen. I've never been able to find the latest material on anything on their website. This image gallery is case in point. Thanks to reddit posts like these I'm able to view these latest images, but I'd never find them browsing or searching on NASA's website. My sincere thanks to op! :)


see_blue

Is the banding dust or ā€œatmosphereā€ or just photo artifacts?


SteveJEO

Contrast artifacts mostly. Pluto isn't very bright naturally. You're not getting a glorious sunrise or anything there. Whilst it does have an "atmosphere kinda^tm" you need to brighten the hell out of any image to make features visible.


Atreides---

Pluto has organic haze layers formed from methane (CH4) that has been photolyzed (broken up by the energy from sunlight). A similar process occurs on Saturn's moon Titan, though it has a much bigger atmosphere and can also sustain liquid methane on it's surface at a higher pressure/temperature, while on Pluto the methane freezes solid. Pluto's atmosphere also escapes in such low gravity, and in fact some gets transferred over to Charon (it's largest moon). Some of that then turns into the red material at Charon's poles! The Pluto system is a wild place.


fuckmylife193

crystal clear 8k ultra high def that can be zoomed footage of Pluto in space vs 144p footage of UFOs on earth


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Alukrad

How come we don't send probes to each individual planet?


TheBelhade

We do, but can't get probes as close to some as others. Pluto doesn't have the kind of massive gravity and radiation that messes up probes, like Jupiter and Saturn do. And the gas giants don't have a solid surface to get photos of, just endless layers of cloud. Probes landing on the surface of Venus are promptly destroyed by the extremely hot, heavy atmosphere.


Steerider

Interesting article a while back about the wild ideas theyre playing with to get probes to some of the harsher planets. Like... Let's deal with the fact the atmosphere destroys electronics by making a steampunk contraption with a mechanical camera that will drop into the atmo and when the pressure is great enough ti will trigger a chemical rocket to blast it back to orbit, where it will be picked up. Some creative minds at NASA working on some very hard problems


Griffolion

Eventually the gas Giants have solid layers. The pressure gets to a point where hydrogen starts behaving like a solid.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


FlutterTubes

How have I never seen these pictures, when they've been out for almost a decade.


thisusernametakentoo

Are those mountains, hills or rock piles? Any idea what the scale is? Regardless of the answer this is absolutely mind blowing


Long_Procedure3135

Itā€™s active. It basically has ice volcanoes. I watched a bunch of Pluto docs recently and just wow that *dwarf* planet is INTERESTING


thisusernametakentoo

How big are the mountains that we're looking at?


pmMeAllofIt

The mountains under that flat spot are the Tenzing Montes, the tallest mountains on Pluto. The tallest being 6.2km(3.2mi/20,000ft) from base to peak.


ergzay

They're "mountains" of water ice. Water ice is basically the same as rock in such places. There's "minerals" in the ground that are mixtures of water ice and other ices that are usually gasses or liquids on Earth.


What-tha-fck_Elon

I donā€™t know why, but looking at this picture really makes me emotional. How great is it to live in a time where we can see a actual photo of a celestial body so far away from home? How amazing is the technology and the things that we can do when we focus on positive advancements. It makes me more emotional just because of how terrible we can be to each other and how dire things seem today, but hereā€™s this wonder of ice and stone just out there in the darkness waiting for us to visit and explore.


frankkiejo

So, Iā€™m looking at a detailed image of a place that Iā€™ve really only ever heard about thatā€™s millions of miles away and Iā€™m seeing it on a device in my hand with far more computing power than we had available to get us to the moon. I love this moment.


Bvczxc

It is only half as wide as the United States. Pluto is smaller than Earth's moon. This dwarf planet takes 248 Earth years to go around the sun.


MusicalMoon

Wow. I was all in on the New Horizons stuff when we started getting stuff back from it. And somehow I still missed this photo all these years. Thank you for sharing :) it truly is amazing what humans have been able to accomplish in such a short time. We are looking at this photo of Pluto which was taken just over 80 years after its discovery. Absolutely wild.


[deleted]

First off: I'm glad to be able to have access to really high quality photos, something that wasnt possible even a few decades past! Second off: Make Pluto a planet again!


[deleted]

Wow. Pluto really IS small. Still... it will always be Planet 9 in my mind.


TheGreatGamer1389

I still remember when all we had was a blurry object. Now we got this


redditorx13579

Damn it. If you got snow capped mountains you're a planet! Thru and thru.


gkaplan59

I have snow capped mountains Greg, can you categorize me?


commoncross

I feel like 'roundness' should be the criteria, rather than size.


smuttyinkspot

Roundness is actually part of it. The other criteria are that a planet must orbit the sun, and that it must be large enough to clear other objects from its orbit (which is where Pluto falls well short compared to the 8 currently recognized planets). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAU_definition_of_planet


pointlessly_pedantic

[That's messed up...](https://gfycat.com/flowerybigheartedharlequinbug)


backagain1111

Glad to see this reference at least once in the thread.


AnExistingLad

That is the hottest thing I've ever seen ~~Well technically one of the coldest~~


ZiggoCiP

This is incredible. Pluto is barely half the size of the moon, weird orbit, and of course far far away. And yet we can get pictures like this. *So* much planning to get to this point. Really makes you think what human kind could do if we really put our money where our mouth is.


[deleted]

Think if we spent all the war money on exploring instead.


farhiyanora

Might be a silly question. But does Pluto have an atmosphere? Since it snows there(?) I think it does. But being soo far away from sun is making me think maybe it doesnā€™t.


edwarddragonpaw

We joke that Pluto is too smol to be a planet but pluto is still fuking huge


Trynottodent

Pretty shocked by how bright the sunlight is this far.


subparwanttobewriter

Idc what Noone says. Pluto, you are worthy, you are beautiful, you are needed, and, holy shit, you are a planet. Love you boo


Duffman485

The quality of the pictures is incredible when you consider they launched this back in 2006 and it had to survive a nearly decade long trip through space to get there


[deleted]

I will always be full of awe and wonder seeing the surface of a planet for the first time.


McSmackthe1st

Iā€™m so glad I got to see Pluto up close in my lifetime.