Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Exciting Stuff

Pluto: wow
I have an idea of what it takes to hit a small target at long range. At one time I could hit a beer can three out of ten times with a rifle at 1000 yards. You can’t even see a beer can at 1000 yards? Yes, I was using a scope.

But to fling a vehicle to within a few miles of a target
2.66 billion miles away on a journey lasting nine and a half years taking a route that used the deflection of two planets And now we have pictures of that target, pictures as detailed as those of our own moon.

This is an object that is so far away from the Sun that since it was discovered 85 years ago it has not yet completed a single orbit. Not only did the discoverer not see Pluto complete its first observed orbit, it will be twelve generations before his descendants do.

And now we have these pictures. Wow.

2 comments:

  1. This is really cool stuff, and I was very excited to read about the mission, and was glued to every update I could find as it was happening. Still am - the probe has survived and will be sending a few of the closest pics back soon for us to see. The rest are being sent back at 2 kbps 4.5 hour distant radio link. And it will take a year and a half to get all the data back. Patience people. I know it's hard. Oh and there's more t be found and explored after that is done. They are working on that. too. Woo hoo. Gimmee stuff like this, not stupid wars and political squabbles.

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  2. BTW, I don't think your picture is accurate, it's an artist representation.

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