Pluto — a Complex and Changing World

astroengine writes "After 4 years of processing the highest resolution photographs the Hubble Space Telescope could muster, we now have the highest resolution view of Pluto's surface ever produced. Most excitingly, these new observations show an active world with seasonal changes altering the dwarf planet's surface. It turns out that this far-flung world has more in common with Earth than we would have ever imagined."

Comments

High res?

[XPeter]

Is it just me, or do the photos look like a big blob of yellows and grays?

i'll grant you pluto is a planet

[circletimessquare]

if you grant me the other seven dwarves are planets: eris, makemake, haumea, sedna, orcus, 2001OR10, and quaoar

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/EightTNOs.png

and the other 100 or so such objects of pluto size likely to be found in the coming decades in the oort cloud

or keep it easy and say its not a planet

your choice, but the third graders of 2080 who have to memorize 80 planets might not be too happy with you

face it, pluto is chump change

Re:i'll grant you pluto is a planet

[mbone]

The solar system does not exist to make things easier for third graders. If there are 80 planets, then so be it.

Another Earth(like)?

[DynaSoar]

"...more in common with Earth than we would have ever imagined."

If this is going to be along the lines of the the "Earthlike" exoplanets, it means something like Pluto has a surface, and probably some elements.

Why is it every planet that's not obviously entirely unlike Earth is "Earthlike"? Are we really that desperate for a refuge should we ruin this planet completely?

Hell no. Most people with even a slight interest and modest education know better, and don't try to make a point anything like that. No, these asinine statements are almost invariably made by 'science journalists' which are rapidly becoming less and less of both of those. They know they can't keep your interest recounting the bare facts so they have to come up with some bullshit that they're probably not even aware how bag of hammers stoopid it sounds. Pluto has an axial tilt, therefore it has seasons... like Earth. Sure, seasons with an average summer of 60 degrees Kelvin and winters at 30 Kelvin. How very Earthlike.

See, there's a downside to all these magazines and other media making stuff available on the net. Since they're making it available for free, they're not making anything directly from them, so they have nothing to lose by making them crap. Then they can get you to subscribe for the better stuff. In theory. Rather than paying some real and knowledgeable science journalists, or even specialists in that field, to write better material, they go the cheap route and use the same mediocre hacks for their print versions as for their e-versions.

So, naturally Pluto is Earthlike. It's because the source is Sciencelike. Sure, and those writers' and editors' asses are Hatlike.