NASA’s New Horizons: A “Heart” from Pluto as Flyby Begins
NASA’s New Horizons: A “Heart” from Pluto as Flyby Begins
Pluto sends its love with a little white heart! This might actually be its ice cap; weird that it's kind of on the equator, right? But Pluto isn't like most other planets because its north/south poles aren't perpendicular relative to its orbit, it almost kind of sits on its side.
I've been keeping a weather eye on New Horizons for years since it first launched in 2006. Pretty much since it launched, I've been tracking its progress. Starting earlier this year I had an almost daily check-in for news. I just love these stories. I was too young when the first images from other planets came in, this is sort of Generation Y's big solar exploratory moment, I guess! (not to knock some of the stuff happening with Mars rovers, or the better imagery we have of the sun, but ... never-before-seen planets are the cat's meow).
It's incredibly tiny as a planet, you can see in this comparison why some people balk at calling it a planet.
The probe will shoot on through the Pluto system in a matter of hours, and then be on its way to the fringes of the solar system. The gravity of Pluto is insufficient to grab the New Horizons probe, which is hurtling through space at 13 Kilometres per second. The probe doesn't have fuel on board to slow itself down on approach and establish orbit. So, this will just be a quick study, but they have numerous instruments on the probe to make it a fairly detailed study.
Poll Pluto poll
Pluto sends its love with a little white heart! This might actually be its ice cap; weird that it's kind of on the equator, right? But Pluto isn't like most other planets because its north/south poles aren't perpendicular relative to its orbit, it almost kind of sits on its side.
I've been keeping a weather eye on New Horizons for years since it first launched in 2006. Pretty much since it launched, I've been tracking its progress. Starting earlier this year I had an almost daily check-in for news. I just love these stories. I was too young when the first images from other planets came in, this is sort of Generation Y's big solar exploratory moment, I guess! (not to knock some of the stuff happening with Mars rovers, or the better imagery we have of the sun, but ... never-before-seen planets are the cat's meow).
It's incredibly tiny as a planet, you can see in this comparison why some people balk at calling it a planet.
The probe will shoot on through the Pluto system in a matter of hours, and then be on its way to the fringes of the solar system. The gravity of Pluto is insufficient to grab the New Horizons probe, which is hurtling through space at 13 Kilometres per second. The probe doesn't have fuel on board to slow itself down on approach and establish orbit. So, this will just be a quick study, but they have numerous instruments on the probe to make it a fairly detailed study.
Poll Pluto poll