New Horizons at Pluto

Corsair 115 said:
More articles on Pluto, which is turning out to be a fascinating little world.

The Frozen Canyons of Pluto’s North Pole
Where’s My Data? Keeping Track of New Horizons’ Treasure of Information
Methane Snow on Pluto's Peaks
The Polygons of Pluto
What’s Eating at Pluto?
Research Papers in Science Reveal New Aspects of Pluto and Its Moons
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Yes, the polygons, in particular, interest me. That means that they have now been observed on Earth, Mars, Pluto and at comet 67P. All indicative of ice related phenomena.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EPSC...10..516A
 
Rincewind said:
Indeed - It has been a stupendous undertaking!
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When the probe was visiting Pluto, I was thinking about immensity of the solar system, and how far away it actually was. Here's what I came up with

If Pluto's orbit were the size of a basketball....
Saturn's orbit would be the size of a pool ball (standard, not snooker)
Jupiter's orbit would be the size of a ping-pong ball
Mars's orbit would be the size of a large marble
Earth's orbit would be the size of a pea
Venus's orbit would be the size of a bb

And the sun is about the size of a human cell.

Here's a picture I made to give an idea of the scale. The concentric circles are the (circular, forgive me) orbits of the planets. The reddish band near the center is the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

picture.php
 
 
Every (dwarf) planet we knew of in the solar system was visited in our imagination and in stories. And even with all our imagination, nothing we thought of came even close to the beautiful, interesting and complex reality.
Add Pluto to that list, from boring iceball to this :)
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
Every (dwarf) planet we knew of in the solar system was visited in our imagination and in stories. And even with all our imagination, nothing we thought of came even close to the beautiful, interesting and complex reality.
Add Pluto to that list, from boring iceball to this :)
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Yuggoth is at least as interesting and complex as the real Pluto, though I admit it's far removed in certain other qualities such as beauty and cosmic horror.
 
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