Pluto

Sneak peak just released by NASA.. More images are to be released on the 15th





Enjoy

Beautiful picture. Can't wait to see more.
S&F

a reply to: Chadwickus

Its that some kind of possible polar icecap i spy?

Wow. Just wow.

How far away from Pluto was it taken?

I'll tell you what...Pluto's a planet! Look how round it is, in that picture anyway.

In edit, did NASA say they have the more pictures incoming, or are they talking about the fly-by, when the fly by happens the probe has no contact with the Earth for the duration, what...two hours or so, and the accuracy of the pictures will be educated guesses.

a reply to: admirethedistance

Yeah it's looking good.

They've posted a size comparison with earth now too..

www.nasa.gov...

Agreed that people will now be rallying to make it an official planet again. Looks like a bowling ball, nice icecap region.

Am I right in thinking that this latest pic was taken at least 4 1/2 hours ago? 120,000 miles away approx?

a reply to: Aleister

I dunno, it really is tiny!

It's diameter is 18.5% of earth's

Yea going off that NASA graphic it really is dinky

Cannot wait for these close ups!

a reply to: MrBergstrom

Not sure the exact distance.

They're discussing it on NASATV in a few minutes..

www.nasa.gov...

Got it on now, cheers for the link!

a reply to: Chadwickus

S&F!!!

Beautiful!!! This is great science which makes me feel lucky indeed to be alive now! Good for Nasa!

They are now waiting anxiously to find out if New Horizon has survived getting so close to Pluto:

Scientists now face an agonizing wait for news from the spacecraft, which is due to call home at 2am UK time on Wednesday morning. Only when that signal is received will Nasa officials know whether New Horizons survived the flyby. The greatest hazard posed to the spacecraft is dust that may form a hazy cloud around Pluto after being knocked off its moons by meteorite strikes. Hal Weaver, a scientist on the mission, said that colliding with a dust particle the size of a grain of rice could potentially destroy the mission. But the risk of such a catasrophic failure is low, at less than one in 10,000.
www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: MrBergstrom

More like 5 hours, 2.5Mb picture, transmitted at 1Kbps, so about 40 minutes for the pic plus 4 1/2 hours travel time....

....give or take.

Agartha - 2am UK time - gonna be a late night for me

Woogleuk - still blows my mind! The 40 mins what is that for again?

That picture is simply stunning.

originally posted by: MrBergstrom
Agartha - 2am UK time - gonna be a late night for me

Are you going to stay awake to follow this mission? I'll be dreaming about it! lol

What a gorgeous picture. Ive been following it live all morning as well as watching what the craft is doing live with the Nasa app. Ive been obsessed with science since i was a kid and this is like a dream come true.

originally posted by: MrBergstrom
Woogleuk - still blows my mind! The 40 mins what is that for again?

Many of us are used to how fast our internet connection sends or receives data. New Horizons can not send data in huge amounts all at once, or fast, due to how far away it is and it's bandwidth in transmission.

1 Kbps (1 kilobit per second), is very slow compared to say someone with DSL internet connections that has an upload speed of 350 Kbps or even 2 Mbps (2 Megabits per second).