New Horizons to flyby Pluto this year

[Vertigo]

Look how far we've come in the last 50 years, who knows what may come in the next 50.

 

[BAYLOR]

Look how far we've come in the last 50 years, who knows what may come in the next 50.

In 50 years , we could well be on Mars.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Look how far we've come in the last 50 years, who knows what may come in the next 50.

To be honest, not as far as I would have hoped. So one can only cross your fingers and hope we speed up a bit...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

At least we have real autonomous robots on Mars, they are not Waldos like bomb disposal and deep sea so called robots. The latency is too high, so they are given short approximate routes and tasks to attempt. Though mostly if there is a problem they simply stop and ask what to do.

 

[Vertigo]

I agree we could have hoped to be further, but it is still pretty remarkable how far we have come.

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

*hits like button*
Glass being half full attitude
I'm just glad Space exploration hasn't come to a complete standstill

 

[Vertigo]

Absolutely!

 

[Brian G Turner]

*hits like button*

We do have a "like" button - look to the bottom right of each post: #postnumber Like +Quote Reply"

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

yeah,but when activated it results in "you like this",eg. post #85

 

[Ray McCarthy]

but when activated it results in "you like this"

Why is that a problem if you want to endorse/agree with/have same sentiment/like the post?

Other people see the name of the person that clicked like.

 

[Vertigo]

What I see on post #85 is: "mosaix and hardsciencefanagain like this."

See it's smart

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

Weell,doesn't matter,this isn't facebook

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Fortunately!

 

[Vertigo]

New image from Charon released as a teaser really
They seem a little excited by the feature in the top left of the image detail:

The image shows an area approximately 240 miles (390 kilometers) from top to bottom, including few visible craters. “The most intriguing feature is a large mountain sitting in a moat,” said Jeff Moore with NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, who leads New Horizons’ Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team. “This is a feature that has geologists stunned and stumped.”

The depression reminds me of the depression (without a mountain in it) just below the ice mountains in the detailed image of Pluto.

The full image is here https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/charon-closeup2.jpg but from this you can see how heavily compressed it is and we'll have to wait for the uncompressed version!

 

[hardsciencefanagain]

I wonder about the geomorphology of the large feature slightly to the left and above the yellow square.It LOOKS continous

 

[Serendipity]

There has been an update on the surface composition of Pluto, which can be found here: http://space.io9.com/the-ice-of-pluto-is-more-diverse-than-we-realized-1717986243

Basically to date (they've only got part of the data download) Pluto has an uneven methane ice distribution... to quote the reference: We just learned that in the north polar cap, methane ice is diluted in a thick, transparent slab of nitrogen ice...

Go imagine...

 

[Twistedlemon]

I wonder if the probe will find any standing water.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

any standing water

Apparently the 3000m (10,000ft) mountains are frozen water (regular ice).
Any planet with frozen Nitrogen isn't going to have liquid water on the surface. That's -210C melting point!

 

[Twistedlemon]

It may be closer to the core, if there's any similarities between the anatomy of the earth and other planets.

 

[Brian G Turner]

More data from Pluto, and continued mystery about Pluto's surface:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33570131

Those "polygons" remind me of sea ice at the North Pole. Obviously we shouldn't expect liquid water on Pluto, so which would be the next best contender to exist in solid/liquid form at the surface of Pluto? Methane, or nitrogen?