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Dwarf Planet Ahoy! Spacecraft Spies Pluto and Charon

Posted by Soulskill on from the i'm-way-too-excited-for-this-probe-to-reach-pluto dept.

astroengine writes "As NASA's New Horizons probe powers through interplanetary space, it's keeping a careful eye forward, watching its target gradually loom larger on the proverbial celestial horizon. But earlier this month the spacecraft spotted something right next to Pluto — a pixelated Charon, the dwarf planet's largest moon. 'The image itself might not look very impressive to the untrained eye, but compared to the discovery images of Charon from Earth, these 'discovery' images from New Horizons look great!' said New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD. 'We're very excited to see Pluto and Charon as separate objects for the first time from New Horizons.'"

7 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Privacy by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Funny

    So the NSA isn't content with spying all over the earth, they now also spy on Pluto and Charon. No, I'm not going to let the extra A after the N fool me. ;-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  2. It is NOT powering through interplanetary space by Alain+Williams · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is drifting, continuing it's journey because of its momentum: launched on 19 January 2006 ... velocity of about 16.26 km/s after its last engine was shut down. OK: powering reads more dramatically, but is wrong.

    1. Re:It is NOT powering through interplanetary space by dmbasso · · Score: 2

      "power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed." -- from Wikipedia

      [pedantic mode on]
      It is receiving energy from solar wind, transforming it to motion... therefore it is actually powering, even if at an insignificant rate.

      --
      `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
    2. Re:It is NOT powering through interplanetary space by peragrin · · Score: 2

      oh don't forget about internal heating. Internal heating has been slightly altering Voyager's trajectory for the last decade.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  3. Re:That's no moon by oodaloop · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's impossible. It's too small to be a space station.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  4. Re:It's actually an egg in space! by tnk1 · · Score: 2

    You mean:

    Slaves to Armok, God of Blood
    Chapter III: Dwarf Planet

    There will be Space Elves and they will be even bigger jerks than the ones in Dwarf Fortress.

    Oh wait, they already wrote that game, it's called Warhammer 40K.

  5. Re:You all should be ashamed by xevioso · · Score: 2

    tl:dr