Neptune and then space junk I think. It's not coming back. Can't think of a better way to get rid of incriminating evidence. It's probably loaded with the files Snowden didn't get.

Kuiper Belt objects, then out of the Solar System, eventually

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Ho...ion_objectives

Following V'Ger


S

Some new images are creeping out from the 5 that are due:

Pluto


Charon

Some new images have just become available, looks like they are going to try a little super resolution from 2.5m km out. Here's my mucking about with them



Interestingly there looks to be stretch fractures over the surface, akin to what was seen at Europa.

A much higher resolution image ought to come out tomorrow, around the time of the actual encounter, but take earlier at 1m km out.

I think I see an Igloo.

Sadly looks a bit like my backside.

Your backside is the size of Western Australia?

Two hours to closest approach.

Looks likely that NASA will release the large image of Pluto around the time of closest approach, even though there's no communication with the probe during the encounter.

PR people ....

Not quite. It was more the stretch fractures comment

And here it is, coloured via the lower res colour camera. The thing that's going to be getting them going is that that light bit is new surface, so young.

Is it a surprise to us that Pluto is so perfectly spherical? In many of my astronomy books from when I was a kid it is depicted as an irregularly shaped rock?

BB

Don't think so, it's well big enough to have it's gravity turn it into a sphere - it's not far off the size of the moon. So's Charon (excepting some dings). You may find that in the dim and distant past (when you went to school) was before they knew Pluto was a binary with Charon. Once you can see two planetoids you can work out much more about size/shape, etc. Otherwise you are saying "ice = white thus for that brightness it would be this size = guessing"

When I was your age Pluto was a planet!

BB

When this probe was launched, Pluto was a planet. 10 years ago.

Basically in 1985-90 the orbit of Charon and Pluto around each other was edge on to us, and they could see transits and eclipses, which meant they knew it was a binary system. Before that they could determine it was 'irregular' in its light pattern - which may be where your school text book got its non-sphere from.

And its phoned home successfully, meaning it didn't get crunched during the encounter. 10 hours till 3 more images, then another 9 hours till 2 more.