New Horizons at Pluto

This morning I found myself standing in front of my house after dawn came up just so I could look in the direction of Ultima Thule in the sky. It is in the general area of Sagittarius. I simply wished to imagine it there in the real sky, even though it is so far away and so dim as to be meaningless to my vision. Further it is so close to the Sun's position right now as to be part of the daytime sky; "looking at it" is doubly absurd. But in my mind I could "feel" it there and superimpose the pictures from New Horizon.

Incredible that we humans built a device to travel four billion miles to peer at what it could see and tell us about it. The skills to build such a device were amazing enough, but more amazing still was our desire as a species to do so. It gives me hope that our curiosity makes us more than just the dangerous, stupid, animals we all too often act as.
 
pgwenthold said:
Are they actually connected, or just together?



If they are connected, how did they get that way? They must have come in at high enough speed for them to exchange materials in some way to get them to fuse?



If someone went over and gave the smaller lobe a push, would it move away (and then return under the force of gravity)? Or is it all solid?
Click to expand...
Why are you assuming it's fused? It might just be accretion of loose material over time.
 
Giordano said:
This morning I found myself standing in front of my house after dawn came up just so I could look in the direction of Ultima Thule in the sky. It is in the general area of Sagittarius. I simply wished to imagine it there in the real sky, even though it is so far away and so dim as to be meaningless to my vision. Further it is so close to the Sun's position right now as to be part of the daytime sky; "looking at it" is doubly absurd. But in my mind I could "feel" it there and superimpose the pictures from New Horizon.

Incredible that we humans built a device to travel four billion miles to peer at what it could see and tell us about it. The skills to build such a device were amazing enough, but more amazing still was our desire as a species to do so. It gives me hope that our curiosity makes us more than just the dangerous, stupid, animals we all too often act as.
Click to expand...

Amen.
 
Giordano said:
This morning I found myself standing in front of my house after dawn came up just so I could look in the direction of Ultima Thule in the sky. It is in the general area of Sagittarius. I simply wished to imagine it there in the real sky, even though it is so far away and so dim as to be meaningless to my vision. Further it is so close to the Sun's position right now as to be part of the daytime sky; "looking at it" is doubly absurd. But in my mind I could "feel" it there and superimpose the pictures from New Horizon.

Incredible that we humans built a device to travel four billion miles to peer at what it could see and tell us about it. The skills to build such a device were amazing enough, but more amazing still was our desire as a species to do so. It gives me hope that our curiosity makes us more than just the dangerous, stupid, animals we all too often act as.
Click to expand...

That's part of our very human nature. We want to gaze at the horizon, then cross the horizon, then explore what we find there. Then find a new horizon and do it again. This is the most appropriately named probe ever.
 
Last edited:
Henri McPhee said:
That's an interesting photo. I have wondered in the past why NASA hardly ever seems to bring out coffee table type books with the photographic results of their space exploration. There may be some which I have never heard about, but it can't be some great big secret.
Click to expand...

They have thousands of wonderful images on their websites; perhaps selecting and publishing them as hard copy books is beyond what they are authorized to do (or funded to do) in their role as a governmental agency.

I wonder who owns the copyright? As a USA citizen could I download NASA images, assemble them, and have a commercial photo processor print them out as my own custom calendar or as a book? Not to sell but as gifts or my private ownership?
 
Giordano said:
I wonder who owns the copyright? As a USA citizen could I download NASA images, assemble them, and have a commercial photo processor print them out as my own custom calendar or as a book? Not to sell but as gifts or my private ownership?
Click to expand...

Your citizenship does not matter. For the most part NASA images are public domain and have no copyright.

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html
 
I saw a wonderful book of moon photos a friend had. I'd almost call it a coffee table book but I think the appeal was more to the propeller heads than average person. Most photos were black and white and the detail was stunning. IIRC the photos mostly had the scale reference marks which sort of limits the artsy aspect.

Not positive but I believe BowlOfRed is correct. NASA declassifies everything at some point and it's released as public domain and I'm pretty sure the photos are included.

At least some NASA photos can be obtained through the US government bookstore (as well as a lot of cool books). The moon book was bought through that source.
 
MEequalsIxR said:
I saw a wonderful book of moon photos a friend had.
Click to expand...

This is my favorite NASA moon photo

picture.php
 
MEequalsIxR said:
Steve001 said:
Flat Earther says: Still looks flat to me.
Click to expand...

The really sad and yet scary part is you are probably right.
Click to expand...
It's worse than that. Apparently they've taken to arbitrary image manipulation of the Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph to "prove" it's really a hidden demon image. (Source: Canadian Geographic Magazine, Jan/Feb 2019, "Inside the Flat Earth Society").
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom