Starship Asterisk*

by **neufer** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 1:38 pm

Boomer12k wrote:
Such a fascinating and varied surface...a place to explore...

Looks like it was FLOWING at one time...that looks like shore line, that winding part in the middle.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `Art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

by **othermoons** » Fri Oct 30, 2015 5:17 am

Amen to that last post!

by **Remo** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:48 pm

BillJ wrote:The APOD image of Sep 18, 2015, "A Plutonian Landscape", is an unparalleled testimony to the spacecraft's namesake, "New Horizons"!! Surely this and other images posted by NASA on 9/17/2015 far exceed expectations of what Pluto's horizons would actually look like!! Congratulations to those responsible for naming the mission!!

Agreed, but I am waiting and hoping that somewhere in New Horizon's data banks is stored data that eventually will be downloaded to add color to that wonderful image of Pluto's horizon.

by **geckzilla** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:41 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
geckzilla wrote:Have you seen the shadows cast by the low lying fog in the large mosaic? There's a cut out of it here. I think it's really cool. It's Pluto's version of a cloud.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newho ... ?id=370518
The shadows are cast by surface features onto fog, not cast by the fog. These are crepuscular rays seen from space.

Thanks, that's what I meant to write.

by **Remo** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:41 pm

tmcdanel wrote:
bob brannan wrote:With all these wonderful features and an atmosphere.... How could Pluto not be called a Planet!
I think it could be called an ice ball.

It may be a dwarf planet and an ice ball, but personally, I like describing it as a Kuiper Belt Planet.

by **Chris Peterson** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:41 pm

geckzilla wrote:Have you seen the shadows cast by the low lying fog in the large mosaic? There's a cut out of it here. I think it's really cool. It's Pluto's version of a cloud.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newho ... ?id=370518

The shadows are cast by surface features onto fog, not cast by the fog. These are crepuscular rays seen from space.

by **geckzilla** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:35 pm

Have you seen the shadows cast by mountainous features onto the low lying fog in the large mosaic? There's a cut out of it here. I think it's really cool. It's Pluto's version of a cloud.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newho ... ?id=370518

by **BillJ** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:24 pm

The APOD image of Sep 18, 2015, "A Plutonian Landscape", is an unparalleled testimony to the spacecraft's namesake, "New Horizons"!! Surely this and other images posted by NASA on 9/17/2015 far exceed expectations of what Pluto's horizons would actually look like!! Congratulations to those responsible for naming the mission!!

by **MarkBour** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:53 am

Fantastic image!

Particularly in the larger one that Geckzilla posted, you can actually see the progression of sunset as you move down the frame: the shadows get noticeably longer, so you see the progression across the surface of Pluto, rather than over time. I've never seen a similar photo of Earth, either because I'm ignorant, or because the curvature of Earth is much less, compared to its mountain ranges, so it might not be noticeable.

I agree, it looks like it is all ice. So, an 11,000-foot tall chunk of ice ... definitely the "large bag of ice" at the grocery store.

by **neufer** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:45 am

ta152h0 wrote:
I recall seeing an image of Pluto as seen from the hubble showing light and dark patches. Now that we have these images, can ' we ' correlate the two /

10⁴ dwarf planet resolution improvement:

0.1 NH LORRI telescope 10⁵ times closer.

0.01 Dawn telescope 10⁶ times closer.

by **tmcdanel** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:15 am

bob brannan wrote:With all these wonderful features and an atmosphere.... How could Pluto not be called a Planet!

I think it could be called an ice ball.

by **tmcdanel** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:14 am

Some day our great, great grandchildren, or so, will walk those plains and climb those mountains. I confess to a bit of envy. I wonder if there will be some sense of loneliness. Or perhaps there will be a MacDonalds.

This is really an impressive photo.

by **bob brannan** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:12 am

With all these wonderful features and an atmosphere.... How could Pluto not be called a Planet!

by **William6** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:44 pm

Remo wrote: The only thing you are missing is the definition of "Backlit": It means the object is lit from behind the object -- not from behind the observer. Easy mistake to make.

Got it. It was an easy mistake for me to make.

by **quigley** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 9:35 pm

Fantastic image! I am so grateful to be living when this kind of space exploration is happening and we can "see" to such distances. Many of the mountains appear to be conical. If they are composed of water ice, how do they attain that shape? They resemble volcanic formations.

by **othermoons** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:12 pm

Pluto's layers of atmosphere reminds me of an accordion, creating pressure when pushed in, and vacuum when pulled out. Such unique atmosphere yet the landscape looks so familiar. I am still in awe that we are able to see this far far away planet with such clarity. Amazing!

by **FLPhotoCatcher** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:00 pm

Viewing the large photo, it looks to me like there are some low clouds in the flat plain areas! The clouds (or whatever they are) appear to be arranged in rows, or cloud streets. I suppose they could be dunes of some sort.

by **Chris Peterson** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:41 pm

Well-there-it-is wrote:Sorry if this has been addressed, but...
Pluto being rather far from the sun, which I'd think would be but a dot in the sky, how are all these amazing photos of Pluto so well lit with so much detail visible?

The Sun is barely more than a dot in the sky from Earth! It's not the size, but the intensity, and there's as much light at Pluto as we have on a heavily overcast day. Plus, you can't tell from an image what the actual brightness is. A one-second exposure on a moonlit night is indistinguishable from a shorter one made on a sunny day.

by **Well-there-it-is** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:34 pm

Sorry if this has been addressed, but...
Pluto being rather far from the sun, which I'd think would be but a dot in the sky, how are all these amazing photos of Pluto so well lit with so much detail visible?

by **C0ppert0p** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:32 pm

This is one of the most amazing planetary photographs I have ever seen, (and I have seen a lot).

by **ta152h0** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:15 pm

I recall seeing an image of Pluto as seen from the hubble showing light and dark patches. Now that we have these images, can ' we ' correlate the two /

by **starsurfer** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:37 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjWxTbVI0cw&t=2m35s

by **Remo** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:21 pm

William6 wrote:Backlit view? It does not appear backlit, and after New Horizons flew past, wouldn't the the sun and the spacecraft be on opposite sides of the planet? What am I missing?

The only thing you are missing is the definition of "Backlit": It means the object is lit from behind the object -- not from behind the observer. Easy mistake to make. Perfect example are backlit clouds which are dark but have silver edges -- just like the mountains at the bottom of the image.

Example of backlit clouds: http://coclouds.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... -06-21.jpg

by **BMAONE23** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:13 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
IamOuibe wrote:The upper left and right of the picture makes it appear that the camera is actually within the atmosphere of the planet. How can those arcs of diffuse light be that high on the photo? Assuming that the craft is not within the atmosphere, what has caused this illusion?
The atmosphere is in the image frame. That doesn't mean the camera is in the atmosphere.

interestingly, the extent of the atmosphere in the APOD photo is only about half of the actual atmospheric extent

by **tetrodehead** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:08 pm

Are we looking at subduction wth the plain diving and popping up mountains?

Starship Asterisk*

APOD: A Plutonian Landscape (2015 Sep 18)

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