Good news.
NASA's Horizons Spacecraft was able to find PLUTO and snap a few pics from only 3.3 million miles away showing some of its geologic features...one of which is now called 'the Whale."
“We’re close enough now that we’re just starting to see Pluto’s geology,” said New Horizons program scientist Curt Niebur, NASA Headquarters in Washington, who’s keenly interested in the gray area just above the whale’s “tail” feature. “It’s a unique transition region with a lot of dynamic processes interacting, which makes it of particular scientific interest.”
Some of the sturctures indentified in this new image are apparently "polygonal features." and a "complex band of terrain about 1,000 miles long.
New Horizon's principal investigator, Alan Stern, said, “After nine and a half years in flight, Pluto is well worth the wait.”
If you say so, Al. New Horizon's next and final pictures will be taken on July 14th.
Meanwhile, the Dwarf Planet Cere's "bright lights" continue to be a mystery. The next "closer" flyby will be in early August.
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| Lights on Ceres |
Stay tuned.
-Ed1
