New Horizons To Make Closest Pluto Approach 7/14

nh-surfaceWhat will the Pluto probe find tomorrow?

Probably not this —

life on pluto

Probably not this either —

Ski Pluto

In less than 13 hours New Horizons will make its closest approach to Pluto, continuing all the while to reclassify science fiction stories as fantasy.

Follow the probe’s activities on the JPL’s New Horizons site or NASA’s New Horizons site.

Here’s a sample of New Horizons’ latest findings – accurate measurements of Pluto and Charon:

This graphic presents a view of Pluto and Charon as they would appear if placed slightly above Earth’s surface and viewed from a great distance.  Recent measurements obtained by New Horizons indicate that Pluto has a diameter of 2370 km, 18.5% that of Earth’s, while Charon has a diameter of 1208 km, 9.5% that of Earth’s.

nh-pluto-charon-earth-size

12 thoughts on “New Horizons To Make Closest Pluto Approach 7/14

  1. Interesting; our Moon is almost exactly (just under) the average diameter of Pluto and Charon. If they’d put the Moon in the middle, it’d look like a straight progression.

  2. As was pointed out on the Facebook page for the Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet, “To set expectations: Only some data will be sent back to Earth by New Horizons in case the spacecraft doesn’t survive. There will be no images received during the flyby as New Horizons focuses on collecting data. Only brief telemetry data will be sent back to earth at 9:02 PM ET tomorrow to indicate the spacecraft has survived the encounter.”

    Most of the data and pictures of Pluto won’t be returned until early September.

  3. More potential images/classic Pluto stories: Secret of the Ninth Planet by Donald Wollheim and Gregory Benford’s The Sunborn.

  4. @Lis Carey

    I plan on hibernating until September. It’ll be here in no time!

  5. @Meredith — Good plan!

    Is it too pedantic to mention that in summer, it’s estivating, not hibernating? Apologies if it is.

  6. @Cally: Interesting; our Moon is almost exactly (just under) the average diameter of Pluto and Charon

    Just over twice actually, 3475km diameter. I suspect you’ve misread a figure for lunar radius.

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