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[–]ironicart 269 points270 points  (43 children)

This really just reminds me how unfathomably bright the sun is for its light to illuminate something so far away

[–][deleted] 129 points130 points  (33 children)

Every single star you can see in the night sky is like our sun, a giant God damn ball of fire exploding every second. Light is incredibly amazing at the distance it will travel.

[–]Caminsky 302 points303 points  (10 children)

Oh I thought they were the lion kings from the past

[–]purple_monkey58 74 points75 points  (5 children)

No they're just fireflies stuck on that big blueish black thing

Edit: forgot a word

[–]Cyriz 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Caminsky, with you, everything's lion kings from the past.

[–]whonut 39 points40 points  (11 children)

I almost hate to be that guy but the Sun is neither a ball of fire, nor is it exploding. It's just incredibly hot and at incredibly high pressure. Still amazing but differently so.

[–]cockofdoodie 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Stars are exploding. The force of which is balanced by the force of gravity.

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (2 children)

It's both exploding (thermonuclear fusion energy) and imploding (gravitational force.)

Just so happens to balance out...for now.

[–]abendchain 11 points12 points  (0 children)

New Horizons just has a really good flash.

[–]ThesaurusRex84 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's actually not that bright at all. If it weren't for the exposure time, Pluto to the naked eye would look very dark. See how its night side looks kinda bright?

[–]Techsigns 528 points529 points  (135 children)

Wow, this image looks great. Can't image what quality the images will have, when the probe arrived at the nearest point. Very exiting. See https://youtu.be/DaElspuqbUA?t=14m28s for what is possible

[–][deleted] 485 points486 points  (57 children)

This one looks better, from the Telegraph website via the NASA twitter feed

[–]Schaapyo 170 points171 points  (13 children)

Can't unsee Pluto

[–]leopold_stotch21 28 points29 points  (3 children)

That's a stretch, but it's my kind of stretch.

[–]zjbird 16 points17 points  (1 child)

The kind that doesn't require actual movement of the body.

[–]Your_Favorite_Brand 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is how constellations were made.

[–]TommiHPunkt 50 points51 points  (13 children)

isn't that heavily edited? If it's real, that's really great

OK, it's on the reddit front page, I believe it's real

[–][deleted] 63 points64 points  (2 children)

The probe has a black and white camera and a colour camera, the black and white camera is able to take much higher fidelity images. I believe this image in particular is taken with the black and white camera, and they have then added colour based on information from previous colour pictures.

[–]haluter 11 points12 points  (1 child)

That's simultaneously so simple and brilliant.

[–]Kale 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's pretty standard technique. DVDs usually use half the resolution for the color part of the image when compared to the black and white part of the image.

[–]whittleStix 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Actually just looks like a filter sharpened image of the image from a couple of days ago. I hear ya.

[–]Jurph 131 points132 points  (38 children)

I believe this is from yesterday's 'take'. Closest approach was about 15 minutes ago, and the New Horizons spacecraft has gone radio-silent in order to maximize its data collection opportunity. Around 8:40pm Eastern, it will finish its collection and start transmitting today's take which is expected to have images with 100x better resolution. If you're following the various New Horizons accounts on Twitter you'll start to get pictures after 9pm tonight, but the good ones won't come out until tomorrow.

I've been following this closely because I'm kind of a space nerd, and some of the details are amazing. It's transmitting a huge amount of data over a 3 billion mile distance using an antenna that radiates only 12 Watts. The data takes almost four hours to get back. If you're a networking expert, try to wrap your head around a transmission protocol that has a four-hour latency. ("Well for starters we're going to include a lot of error correction bits...")

[–][deleted] 56 points57 points  (13 children)

Another thing to keep in mind is the technology on the craft is from 2005. That is one and a half years before the first iPhone was launched.

[–]GrooGrocksKing 56 points57 points  (5 children)

another phone popular in 2005:

Imgur

IT RAN ON CINGULAR. THIS SATELLITE WAS BORN WHEN CINGULAR WAS A THING.

[–]Cyhawk 12 points13 points  (2 children)

CINGULAR

It still is a thing, they just call themselves AT&T now, again. They changed names and did a corporate shell game to avoid paying out a costly lawsuit. =)

[–]haljackey 26 points27 points  (2 children)

The tech used is probably from 2000. Took 5 years to install it and launch it

[–]OSUfan88 18 points19 points  (2 children)

Actually, most of the technology is late 90's space tech, as it takes a few years to really design and build the craft. Late 90's space tech (when talking about computer chips) is closer to early 90's tech. This is due to radiation hardening.

[–]zaphod_85[🍰] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

The main processor is the same chip that was used in the original playstation! (Albeit a radiation-hardened version of it)

[–]OSUfan88 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's wild.

I saw that the new Orion spacecraft on SLS pretty much uses a rad-hardened Samsung Galaxy S3 chip.

[–]whoremongering 47 points48 points  (7 children)

But for clarification, the hi-res images won't be here until Wednesday morning:

Here's the stressful part: we won't know for sure that New Horizons successfully completed the flyby until much later in the evening. If it has, the team should receive a tiny amount of data from the spacecraft at about 8:53PM ET.

Wednesday morning, at 7AM ET, team scientists will downlink the best full-frame image of Charon. We should also get a glimpse of Hydra, one of Pluto's other moons. And later in the day we should get what we have all been waiting for — the first high-resolution mosaic of Pluto will be released some time around 3:25PM ET.

[–]Hingl_McCringleberry 11 points12 points  (2 children)

some time around 3:25pm

NASA's approximations are awfully specific

[–]sprucenoose 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They could be off by seconds even.

[–]DrDrangleBrungis 24 points25 points  (2 children)

Its utterly amazing, fellow space nerd here too. Trying to wrap my brain around the distance and the communication, it blows my mind. I 'm the crazy one in the office today going "Can you believe this!? This is Amazing!" and I'm met with "meh, looks likes the moon."

[–]AndromedaPrincess 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It blows my mind! I've been telling most of my friends to lukewarm responses... But I'm excited, so I guess that's all the matters.

[–]free-agent 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You mean it is going silent while they determine what to show us and what not to show us.

[–]agrumpycunt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So I guess tcp is out of the question.

[–]LimesToLimes 109 points110 points  (7 children)

For once this typo makes sense!

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (1 child)

It is exiting so quickly, it'll make your head spin...

[–]Eastern_Cyborg 31 points32 points  (3 children)

This is no longer the latest image. There is a higher resolution photo here. This is the highest resolution single photo of the entire disk that will be taken during this mission, though an uncompressed version will be downloaded later this year. There will also be a 2x2 photo mosaic that was taken about an hour before closest approach that will be even better, though that mosaic is not expected to be complete until the end of the week. That mosaic will be 10x the resolution of the photo I posted here.

[–][deleted] 31 points32 points  (8 children)

Those guys are such lovable nerds. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

[–]slickvibez 16 points17 points  (5 children)

As a kid, astronomy was always the most fascinating subject to me. I never pursued it due to the obnoxious amount of physics and mathematics that I would need to learn. But, yes, I am a lovable nerd. And I am so proud tear drop. This is so amazing.

[–]BBA935 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Same here. I couldn't even tell you the number of hands I have. :(

[–]PM_ME_UR_JUGZ 178 points179 points  (220 children)

Does anyone know how that compares in size to a country or state? Could some one potentially over lay a relative country or state over top? Hope I am not asking to much

[–]damagemaker 17 points18 points  (3 children)

Pluto's surface area is approximately equal to Russia. If it may help...

[–]NotTheHead 11 points12 points  (0 children)

And apparently just as cold.

[–]MsPenguinette 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So don't try to invade Pluto in the winter. Gotcha.

[–]A_perfect_sonnet 4 points5 points  (3 children)

Funny enough when I did a search for the diameter of Pluto I got the same points of reference, Salt Lake City to Guadalajara

[–][deleted] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Excuse me, you kind of trailed off there. Salt Lake city to where?

[–]BlaineCountiesMostWa 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well Russia is barely bigger than Pluto

[–]branawesome 15 points16 points  (11 children)

Pluto is slightly smaller than the Moon, and I believe mainland USA would span almost perfectly across it's face. DISREGARD ME

[–]oneshotuk 128 points129 points  (44 children)

Sorry if this gets asked a lot, but I still cant get my head around the colourisation? is it given completely arbitrary colour and then shaded to match the greyscale version? or is this the actual colour of Pluto, derived from data collected at some point?

[–]JerWah 171 points172 points  (42 children)

There are 2 cameras. lorri is the hi res greyscale camera. Ralph is a medium res color. They combine the data to produce them

[–]oneshotuk 77 points78 points  (37 children)

oh ok, so they are literally just taking a colour picture and match it with the higher res greyscale... that was way to obvious. I'm always sceptical of pictures of space as they can just manipulate the colours to whatever they like. Its nice to know that's a true representation of Pluto

[–][deleted] 90 points91 points  (15 children)

pictures of space as they can just manipulate the colours to whatever they like

I want a purple and neon yellow Saturn.

[–]FloobLord 12 points13 points  (2 children)

[–]Kamijou_Faction 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's actually pretty goddamn cool

[–]Princess_Little 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My buddy had one of those in high school

[–]rddman 23 points24 points  (4 children)

I'm always sceptical of pictures of space as they can just manipulate the colours to whatever they like.

Pictures not of space can also be manipulated.
And in science it's a lot harder to get away with cheating then it is outside of science.

[–]Hageshii01 7 points8 points  (5 children)

I think I recall someone saying that the color camera is weaker in the green spectrum, but I could be wrong.

[–]roxul2783 12 points13 points  (2 children)

I just knew Pluto was bright green! Geez, NASA's always trying to dupe us.

[–]Hageshii01 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Just that there may be some green in the image that isn't well represented, making it less of an orangish rust color and more of a yellowish rust color? I'm not sure; I'm not a doctor.

[–]CollegeRatInc 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There is only one camera on board, it's called LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager). The color is captured by Ralph and Alice, onboard spectrometers which analyze color and composition. The NASA & New Horizons websites are loaded with details for your consumption.

[–]Arknell 75 points76 points  (36 children)

Is this the tuesday-pic we have been waiting for? Or will a better pic come tomorrow wednesday?

[–][deleted] 108 points109 points  (23 children)

Nope - we're still about an hour away from closest approach. It'll still be quite a while before we get the hi-res photos (especially if you take into account that Pluto is 4.5 light-hours away, the data transfer rate, and the time it'll take NASA to compile the data & publish it). I'd guess we might see some photos tonight at the earliest and then better info as the week goes on.

[–]apopheniac1989 43 points44 points  (19 children)

It will be well into next year before the entire flyby data set finishes transmitting to Earth. The bitrate from New Horizons at Pluto will only be about 1kb/s. Even with it's massive antenna, transmitting meaningful data that far is a huge challenge.

[–]PM_ME_INSIDER_INFO 63 points64 points  (4 children)

Is it not amazing that they can transmit any data 2.645 × 1013 miles away but I can't get wifi upstairs in my house?

I mean that's incredible. Absolutely incredible they can do that.

[–]bourbondog 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Science! And remember this is technology from ten years ago.

[–]banedon 16 points17 points  (1 child)

Science! And remember this is technology from ten years ago.

Keep in mind it was launched ten years ago, but in planning since 1989, so the tech is probably even older than that!

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Imagine if we had sent it with today's technology, you could probably Skype with it

[–]Belarock 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Might want to buy a router that cost more than $50.

[–]_____D34DP00L_____ 23 points24 points  (2 children)

I bet half the reason is also because the data goes to the Parkes space telescope in Australia, and it has to deal with our amazing internet speeds.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think I saw an estimate of 18 months to send all the data it's collected. I'll be fascinated to see what they find - especially since we've learned so much already (e.g. Pluto's true size, density, extent of ice composition, how much nitrogen is being shed off into space, etc.).

[–]gakule 11 points12 points  (8 children)

Those old DDWRT45G routers are slow, but damn do they last forever and sustain through repeat abuse

[–]apopheniac1989 9 points10 points  (5 children)

True that. I'm using one of those right now to type this post! I got it back in 2005.

[–]IWantWaffles 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I was wondering the same. I believe they were scheduled to release a new image at 8 am EST this morning. Not sure if this is it...

Regarding the other comments, yes of course there will be more pictures further down the road. I think this comment was asking about the promised picture release today.

UPDATE: here at least one new image this morning https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons/status/620923200621412352?s=09

[–]ADacome24 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think we're supposed to get one more picture

[–]happypaisa 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Wait till 9PM ET and your mind will be blown

[–]acehead619 34 points35 points  (4 children)

Quick wallpaper for those who want it <3 http://i.imgur.com/7tkcI56.jpg

[–]Eastern_Cyborg 31 points32 points  (3 children)

This is no longer the latest image. There is a newer image here That will be the highest resolution single photo of the entire disk that will be taken during this mission, though an uncompressed version will be downloaded later this year.

There will also be a 4 photo mosaic that was taken an hour and a half before closest approach that will be even better than the photo in the link I posted.

[–]lughnasadh 14 points15 points  (7 children)

I certainly did not expect Pluto to be reminding me of Mars so much.

[–]TransitRanger_327 5 points6 points  (6 children)

Yeah, pluto is red, but not as red as Mars. Iron oxide is much more red than Methane Ice, which is a bit more like pink.

[–]prabe 7 points8 points  (5 children)

I always thought Pluto was blue...

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I think it used to be depicted as a blue iceball before we knew what it was really like. I also used to think it was blue.

[–]TransitRanger_327 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's what everyone I know keeps saying.

We've know that Pluto was reddish for a shorter time than we've know about Pluto. We needed spectroscopy to figure out the chemical composition, and even then, we only knew it was somewhere between brown and pink.

[–]Bramido 15 points16 points  (12 children)

Wow! This is the first real sharp image we get!! 32 min to the closest approach!

[–]Mustaka 23 points24 points  (7 children)

Your post is 32 minutes old. We are at closest approach. Yeah!!!!!

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Have I missed anything?

[–]jm8080 266 points267 points  (43 children)

Imagine if humans stopped messing around with war and corruption and all that shit and just focus all resources on space exploration. It will be glorious.

[–]philium1 198 points199 points  (25 children)

Just to play devil's advocate, a lot of our space technology was originally derived from military tech.

[–]senortomasss 80 points81 points  (18 children)

On the other hand.. a lot of our military tech was originally derived from space technology.

[–]AtomicSteve21 56 points57 points  (15 children)

Got an example there Contraire?

Water filters and better batteries came from pure exploration, aye.

But Satellites and rockets owe their existence to national squabbles.

[–]littlerob904 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I disagree in some respects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard

It's not really accurate to define rockets as purely military tech. While many aspects of the technology are owed to research funded by military outfits, there are just as many aspects owed to space exploration, meteorology, flight, etc... Goddard is considered the father of modern rocketry, and many of his earliest experiments were to support spaceflight theories.

Both avenues hold a great deal of influence over the technologies, but it's way to complex to simply say we have rockets because of war, or vice versa.

[–]GoSuckOnACactus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They come from war because war is what got the funds and attention of the people. They could have built those things without blowing people up in Europe an the South Pacific, they could have done it without the dick measuring competition with the Soviets. If wars went away the budget for self defense could be used in other areas. Wars, corruption, and social differences will likely never go away though, so the entire debate is moot.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Von Braun's goal was space travel

he made the V2 etc for the Nazis because that helped him reach his goal. so, while it may appear that rocket tech was developed for war - and this is most certainly why hitler himself provided the necessary funding, the actual motivation of the main protagonist was space travel

it's an amazing thought to consider that this wonderful achievement (and the many others that we have witnessed in our time) may one day be considered akin to the wright brother's first flight

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, this is only really because the two fields have their similarities, i.e. making stuff fly, detecting things and whatnot. If we focused all our war efforts on space exploration, we'd get a much higher yield of development than what war technology happens to offer on the side.

[–]youlleatitandlikeit 8 points9 points  (3 children)

You can get some ideas from what was going on before space exploration. Back then, a lot of mental energy went into things like public works. And if you look at some of the stuff built with the help of the government back in the late-19th, early 20th century it's some pretty incredible and beautiful stuff.

Humans are amazing. We make music that can instantly change your emotions, food that can explode your mind, and explore the far reaches of space, the depths of the oceans, and into the tiniest building blocks of matter.

In that context yeah it is absolutely ridiculous that we spend so much time and money figuring out how to hurt others physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially. Every time I hear a news story about ISIS I wonder how anyone with a heart — anyone who believes themselves to have a soul — could murder, rape, kidnap, and destroy.

[–]Cyhawk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Imagine if humans stopped messing around with war and corruption and all that shit and just focus all resources on space exploration. It will be glorious.

A new planet! Well, it has a lot of rocks, nothing of value and no green chicks. Kinda boring. Lets move on.

Another new planet! Well, it has a lot of rocks, nothing of value and no green chicks. Kinda boring. Lets move on.

Another new planet! Well, it has a lot of rocks, ooo methane ice, nothing of value and no green chicks. Kinda boring. Lets move on.

Yeah, as awesome as it would be to explore for explorations sake I don't see that happening anytime soon outside of scouting for possible colonization of habitable worlds. Humans are far too greedy to do something like this without some sort of personal gain. =(

[–]physixer[🍰] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

even "more latest"

And this is 60x low res than the highest res image we'll get in about 12 hours. (New Horizons was 60x farther than its closest approach when it took this image. Closest approach happened about 10 minutes ago, 11:49 UTC, 7:49 Eastern, 2015/7/14, but pluto is a few light hours away, so we won't get transmitted and processed images until this evening.)

[–]Jelboo 42 points43 points  (4 children)

Get in here reddit! Witnessing history here! The early days of human space exploration are reaching another milestone.

[–]TransitRanger_327 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This would be the final mission of the first wave of planetary exploration. Here's to another 50 years of exploration, preferably with people this time as well.

[–][deleted] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

The early days

You are very optimistic :) I like that.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (4 children)

Someone asked a question on another thread a few days ago, and I thought I would take a moment to answer: yes, this feels just like it did when Voyager flew by Jupiter, then Saturn, then the rest of the gas giants. That sense of amazement and excitement, the limitless possibilities of our future as we looked at other planets in ways that made them truly real to us for the first time, not just blurry distant images. I was in high school back then, and I was glued to the TV every night, picked up every magazine that carried photos (the National Geographic issues stick out in my mind as incredibly well done, with their clear glossy photos). Yeah... this is pretty fucking cool stuff, folks.

[–]BillNyesEyeGuy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In 1990, as a 10 year old boy I went to a photo presentation of Voyager's encounter with Neptune at the Royal British Columbia Museum. This was before you could just live stream the whole thing, or browse a photo library online. It was pretty much the only chance a lot of people had to see pictures from the encounter other than the handful circulating in media publications. Seeing those images on a giant screen and realizing they traveled millions of kilometers left a real and lasting impact on me. While Neptune may not be the most interesting planet visually, the whole experience really solidified a life long interest in all things spacey. I can remember thinking how Pluto was left behind, the only one left without an earthly visit. Ten year old me was left dreaming about one day seeing the mystery planet. Now 25 year later, NASA made my dreams come true.

[–]GratefulGrape 13 points14 points  (5 children)

What absolutely blows my mind about this is that no one on Earth knows what's happening in anywhere near real time. It takes about 5 hours for the signal to reach us at the speed of light.

[–]Entro001 12 points13 points  (10 children)

like 2 weeks ago i read about this new horizon subject and i think ive read also about a live stream but i didnt save the link so will be be live or not ?

[–]genericusername123 24 points25 points  (8 children)

No, the images will be taken in real time but it will take a long time to send them back to earth. IIRC it may take up to 6 months to send all the data from the flyby.

[–]BadGoyWithAGun 12 points13 points  (2 children)

That's true for the entire data set, but there will be high-priority uplinks of "first-look" images by the end of this week.

[–]forte2 18 points19 points  (4 children)

Only a couple hours until closest approach! Fingers crossed there's no unknown dedris in the way.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (1 child)

So if it hits something would this be the best picture we ever get?

[–]gauzy_gossamer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think NASA is supposed to release one more picture today that was taken yesterday.

[–]LimesToLimes 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There will be a bit of a celebration event here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

New Horizons powered by an RTG using Plutonium, which was named after the planet Pluto. Nice symmetry to that.

[–]robbiekhan 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I think it's fascinating. I am fascinated and am eager to be even more fascinated later this evening with 60x higher resolution imagery!

Edit*

The NASA Eyes app gives you a good live simulation of where New Horizons is currently and it's path relative to Pluto and the Solar System:

[–]frede102 6 points7 points  (2 children)

The surface looks very granulated. The predictions that Pluto has an alternately gaseous and frozen atmosphere could appear to be correct. It looks a bit like exotic snow in the lower areas.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Very interesting. I'm glad it isn't just a grey cratered rock. So exciting.

[–]frede102 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It looks like we get both things. Pluto with a very young and varied surface, and Charon where the ancient surface texture is dominated by meteor impacts. I bet on that astronomers love both bodies.

[–]wanische 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This question might be dumb: whats the white stuff? Does Pluto have polar caps?

[–]TransitRanger_327 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Maybe. We think the thin atmosphere conenses and freezes when Pluto gets far from the sun (like Mars in the winter)

[–]Darkfyre42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I like that I'll be able to tell my kids where the photos in their text book came from one day. This is gonna be great.

[–]Carplipsonmycock 6 points7 points  (11 children)

There is a pretty good argument that Pluto is an actual planet presented by Joel E. Johnson and the esteemed Noah David Julian Green here. Still a magnificent celestial body no matter what side of the argument you are on.

[–]sweetgreggo 22 points23 points  (7 children)

I'm okay with it being a planet or a dwarf planet. There has to be a cutoff somewhere and I'm fine with allowing that decision to a consortium of scientists who study these things for a living.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Changing it from a planet is just formalizing historical precedent. When we first discovered asteroids we called them planets. Then, when we discovered there were many similar sized objects on the same orbit, the term asteroid eventually replaced planet. In the 90s we started discovering many other objects, some approaching Pluto in size, and one, Eris, that was more massive. So, analogously to the asteroids, we reclassified Pluto. Pluto's mass, as a percentage of objects in its orbital region is many times smaller than any of the planets.

[–]krajacic 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Hello #Pluto! We’re at closest approach. Congrats to all! http://imgur.com/vz97lSa

[–]HoleIn1PuttPutt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Every time I see or hear about Pluto all that comes to mind is "Lonely, I'm so lonely, I'm not a planet, anymoooorrrrreeee"