Pluto

[TheRealJoeFish]

I believe Kerberos has much lower albedo than the other small moons.

Has it tried a testosterone supplement, or at least Viagra?

[CapnAwesome]

Anybody else super exciting to get close up pictures of Pluto in two weeks?

It's weird. When I first really heard of the New Horizons mission I thought, "Oh we'll see Pluto? That's cool I guess."
But now as the day is getting closer I find I actually am getting excited for it. No idea why really, but I don't care, just glad to be excited about it.

It's like having a crush on a girl, forgetting about it for a while, and then 10 years later you get to bang her.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm looking forward to it.

[The Valkyrie]

Yeah, I love this stuff.

Every scientific advancement/breakthrough makes me happy.

But that happiness is tempered when I think that in the 21st century, when we have space probes that have basically left the solar system, we still have groups killing and persecuting others in the name of 2,000 year mythologies.

[Homeless Nutter]

Anybody else super exciting to get close up pictures of Pluto in two weeks?
[...]

Uhm... No, not really...




...

I'll get my coat.

[c172]

Anybody else super exciting to get close up pictures of Pluto in two weeks?

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/t-m...ns-n384776

I know that it got downgraded from a planet to whatever the hell it is now from the time new horizons launched to now, but as one of the people who grew up with little Pluto as the 9th planet, I'm really excited to get the first close up pictures of it and it's moon, Charon.

I got annoyed initially by the downgrading, but tbh, lately, I've been fascinated by moons. I'm particularly obsessed with Io these days. There are all sorts of cool objects out there that aren't planets.

[Jackalope]

The whole declassification flap is kind of silly, tbf. There was no coherent, scientifically useful definition of "planet" that would result in Pluto retaining the same classification as the eight current major planets, and certainly none that would result in having exactly nine planets (a number of trans-Neptunian objects would qualify). The fact of the matter is, Pluto has far more in common with other TNOs than the big 8).

"Minor planet" seems an appropriate designation.

[The Inquisition]

Anybody else super exciting to get close up pictures of Pluto in two weeks?

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/t-m...ns-n384776

I know that it got downgraded from a planet to whatever the hell it is now from the time new horizons launched to now, but as one of the people who grew up with little Pluto as the 9th planet, I'm really excited to get the first close up pictures of it and it's moon, Charon.

Yes, this is awesome, and it's happening at the same time the Dawn spacecraft is exploring Ceres. Fascinating worlds!

It looks like Pluto might have a huge crater on it's surface, hard to tell this far out though.

[Jackalope]

I'm hoping we see some interesting surface features. Hey, at least there's no clouds like on Titan. If there's anything to see, we'll see it.

[The Inquisition]

Some really bizarre features on the surface:



Pluto, curioser and curioser