New Horizons Probe's Images of Jupiter

SeaDour writes "The Pluto-bound New Horizons space probe, launched a little over a year ago, recently succeeded in passing through a narrow navigational keyhole by Jupiter. Using the gas giant's tremendous gravity, the craft now has a significant boost toward its final destination, shaving three years off the time it would otherwise spend en-route. As it passed through the Jovian system, the probe took some fantastic images of the neighborhood, including detailed observations of erupting volcanoes on Io, time-lapse photography of Jupiter's tumultuous atmosphere, and the faint ring system that was first discovered in Voyager photography. These new images prove the capabilities of the small probe, which is set to reach Pluto in 2015."

Comments

Re:Great!

[Aladrin]

It was launched last year. If my $450 cellphone can have a color camera with decent resolution, so can this gajillion dollar probe. (Excuse me, it was only $650 million. Yeah, definitely couldn't have afforded a color camera.)

If this probe had been launched a decade ago, I'd have thought nothing of a B&W camera with shitty pics. But last year? Give me a freaking break.

And yes, I'm fully aware of what the original computers looked like. We passed that stage LONG ago for computers, rockets, and cameras.