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New Horizons Pluto Encounter

Watching a program on the Science Channel called "Direct From Pluto: The First Encounter."

The very first images of Pluto and first-hand accounts by the scientists who planned the mission.
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I recorded it on the DVR a few days ago.
 
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Benjamin Frost said:
Can you explain how?
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The vastness and the minutiae of existence appear to be convergent, as though everything is fully contained within each littlest thing in some sort of quasi-holographic nightmere paradox. Quantum physics and astrophysics become difficult to distinguish one from the other the closer you look at them. Exploring the inner depths of reality will most likely lead to the suburbs of spacetime.

One could probably devise a really awesome religion based on that, but they would have to do it in PRSI, not here.
 
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Sydde said:
The vastness and the minutiae of existence appear to be convergent, as though everything is fully contained within each littlest thing in some sort of quasi-holographic nightmere paradox. Quantum physics and astrophysics become difficult to distinguish one from the other the closer you look at them. Exploring the inner depths of reality will most likely lead to the suburbs of spacetime.

One could probably devise a really awesome religion based on that, but they would have to do it in PRSI, not here.
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So you're saying that everything is everything else?

I can understand that. It makes sense if you look at music. There is a natural harmonic series that exists in nature. No matter where you are, the same principles exist.
 
nh_03_olkin_01.jpg

2015-07-24-PlutoHaze.png


Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA’s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders.

“We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “With flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling."

Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface. A preliminary analysis of the image shows two distinct layers of haze — one about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface and the other at an altitude of about 30 miles (50 kilometers).

“My jaw was on the ground when I saw this first image of an alien atmosphere in the Kuiper Belt,” said Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “It reminds us that exploration brings us more than just incredible discoveries — it brings incredible beauty.”

Studying Pluto’s atmosphere provides clues as to what’s happening below.

“The hazes detected in this image are a key element in creating the complex hydrocarbon compounds that give Pluto’s surface its reddish hue,” said Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Models suggest the hazes form when ultraviolet sunlight breaks up methane gas particles — a simple hydrocarbon in Pluto’s atmosphere. The breakdown of methane triggers the buildup of more complex hydrocarbon gases, such as ethylene and acetylene, which also were discovered in Pluto’s atmosphere by New Horizons. As these hydrocarbons fall to the lower, colder parts of the atmosphere, they condense into ice particles that create the hazes. Ultraviolent sunlight chemically converts hazes into tholins, the dark hydrocarbons that color Pluto’s surface.
 
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obeygiant said:
nh_03_olkin_01.jpg

2015-07-24-PlutoHaze.png


Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA’s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders.

“We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “With flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling."

Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface. A preliminary analysis of the image shows two distinct layers of haze — one about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface and the other at an altitude of about 30 miles (50 kilometers).

“My jaw was on the ground when I saw this first image of an alien atmosphere in the Kuiper Belt,” said Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “It reminds us that exploration brings us more than just incredible discoveries — it brings incredible beauty.”

Studying Pluto’s atmosphere provides clues as to what’s happening below.

“The hazes detected in this image are a key element in creating the complex hydrocarbon compounds that give Pluto’s surface its reddish hue,” said Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Models suggest the hazes form when ultraviolet sunlight breaks up methane gas particles — a simple hydrocarbon in Pluto’s atmosphere. The breakdown of methane triggers the buildup of more complex hydrocarbon gases, such as ethylene and acetylene, which also were discovered in Pluto’s atmosphere by New Horizons. As these hydrocarbons fall to the lower, colder parts of the atmosphere, they condense into ice particles that create the hazes. Ultraviolent sunlight chemically converts hazes into tholins, the dark hydrocarbons that color Pluto’s surface.
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This is fantastic stuff, and I have been reading about it. Thanks for posting this link.

It would appear that Pluto's atmosphere is steaming away at an astonishing rate, and that this process is accelerating. In one of the reports that I read, some scientists seemed to suggest that the planet ('former planet' they coyly called it) was in the middle of a sort of atmospheric meltdown, and may run the risk of losing its atmosphere entirely.

Nevertheless, the pictures are stunning, just absolutely incredible. Beautiful, too. The 'haze' appears to have astounded scientists - their calculations and models did not predict anything of the sort, and they are scrambling for credible explanations…while wonderfully awestruck.
 
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More pictures of Pluto released by NASA.
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wows-in-spectacular-new-backlit-panorama
nh-apluto-mountains-plains-9-17-15_0.png

Closer Look: Majestic Mountains and Frozen Plains: Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 230 miles (380 kilometers) across.
Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)
Click to expand...
 
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