NASA Unveils Historic Pictures of Pluto

An anonymous reader writes: The New Horizons team held a press briefing today and released new data and high-resolution photographs of Pluto. Alan Stern, lead researcher of New Horizons said: "We now have an isolated, small planet that's showing activity after four and a half billion years. We've settled the fact that these very small planets can be active for a long time, and I think that's going to send a lot of geophysicists back to the drawing board."

Comments

Wait... What?

[mark-t]

Did he just say ... "planet"?

Re:Umm forgive but

[ThorGod]

watch the feed. What they've discovered so far has already challenged and thrown out many hypotheses about planet formation/evolution. It may look like a rock to the untrained eye - but what humanity knows about planetary physics has already changed because of this probe. It's impossible to know where and how this will change our theories and even technology down the road.

Re:Fun...

[Jason Levine]

I was talking to my son about the New Horizons mission today and explained to him that scientists LOVE it when they look at something and think "I have no clue why this is the way it is." That's one of the best moments in science. That means you have a mystery to solve. The worst thing any scientist can think is "We know everything there is to know about this thing." Science thrives on unraveling the unknown. The day when we know everything there is to know about everything is the day science dies. (Granted, I doubt that day would ever come as there's always more to learn.)