[bird72]

In July we will get amazing photo's of Pluto (The Ex-Planet, haha) and its weird moons. New Horizon will get there mid July, I believe. For now we get some longer range shots, every day better. This took years to pull off and I dig the news on it. http://www.space.com is a great site for cosmos in general and this in particular. http://www.nasa.gov/ is a cool site also. (They do scrub out the UFO's though ...)

Pluto and Charon are "tidally locked" in a weird gravitational thing, and the other 4 moons orbit around the two, and a couple of the moons are egg shaped, and they tumble and rotate in weird orbits that change all the time. Pretty cool stuff.


.

[cdrookie]

i never even knew pluto had moons! let alone odd shaped ones. wish i would be alive when we unlock the secrets that exist outside of our solar system.

[The Boss]

It's a sad thing that Pluto got nixed from the solar system - is there an appeals process for that?

In all seriousness - cool links & interesting stuff.

[JSPONT]

Love stuff like that. Makes you realize how you mean so little to this world!

[Half-Inch Stud]

If it has a moon or moons, then heck it is by definition a planetary gear set.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by bird72

In July we will get amazing photo's of Pluto (The Ex-Planet, haha) and its weird moons. New Horizon will get there mid July, I believe. For now we get some longer range shots, every day better. This took years to pull off and I dig the news on it. http://www.space.com is a great site for cosmos in general and this in particular. http://www.nasa.gov/ is a cool site also. (They do scrub out the UFO's though ...)

Pluto and Charon are "tidally locked" in a weird gravitational thing, and the other 4 moons orbit around the two, and a couple of the moons are egg shaped, and they tumble and rotate in weird orbits that change all the time. Pretty cool stuff.


.

Thxs for posting this...July is a season I am definitely biased to as, a guy named Neil walked on a place called "The Moon" on my 10Th Birthday on July 20, 1969

[cuz68]

Thay did not teach us in school, That it has 4 moons that is wild.

[johnta1]

Thay did not teach us in school, That it has 4 moons that is wild.

They didn't know it had moons until fairly recently.
(way after I was in school)

[ta6point6]

The more we discover the more questions we have about our own solar system much less the universe. Like scienctists discovered Mercury has a center core, recently scienctists thought Mercury the planet was its core. Scienctists thought the outer crust was melted off or had a huge imapct that stripped it of its outer core.
Sceince still cant explain why Venus spins in the opposite direction or why it did not turn out more like Earth

[bird72]

Originally Posted by ta6point6

The more we discover the more questions we have about our own solar system much less the universe.

YES!

The Ceres exploration is amazing and will yield some surprises. The what, 2020 or so Europa mission is going to be something. Oceans larger than ours. How could life not be there? I know under ice, but it breaks through also as water. Thermal sea areas possibly for warmth. They are designing underwater craft to explore. Hang on.....

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by ta6point6

The more we discover the more questions we have about our own solar system much less the universe. Like scienctists discovered Mercury has a center core, recently scienctists thought Mercury the planet was its core. Scienctists thought the outer crust was melted off or had a huge imapct that stripped it of its outer core.
Sceince still cant explain why Venus spins in the opposite direction or why it did not turn out more like Earth

Indeed!

[bird72]

Pluto and moon Charon, a composite deal where it gets bigger. This is pretty current shots. In a couple of weeks we get there and see a planet and 5 moons we never have that close. The other 4 moons orbit around both these two, so when they get closer it will be wild video. Over 3 billion miles from us. Commands take over 4 hours to signal, so you are acting in the future. If something goes wrong, we won't know for a while! They are going to navigate close to Pluto this way.

[Bazooka]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Thxs for posting this...July is a season I am definitely biased to as, a guy named Neil walked on a place called "The Moon" on my 10Th Birthday on July 20, 1969

I was born on July 20th also but a little late as I was born 13 yrs after the moon landing. I always thought it was neat to share my birthday with such a historic anniversary

[bird72]

Latest pics, soon wayyy better.....

PLUTO & MOON CHARON
.

PLUTO when closest, New Horizon will take clear photo's showing topo detail and surface features. As you can see, Pluto has some interesting dark and light and maybe large mountains.

[Motor Daddy]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

If it has a moon or moons, then heck it is by definition a planetary gear set.

It's all a gear set. Entropy driven, according to the second law.

[Chicagogoat]

Yes it's a very cool moment right now for humankind to learn more about our solar system. Pluto's downgrade to a "dwarf planet" is thanks to the January '05 discovery of a larger dwarf planet called Eris which has a crazy huge elliptical orbit that brings it so far out that it's said to be known as one of the most distant objects observed by man in the solar system. Pluto also has an elliptical orbit that is slightly outside the plane of the solar disc but Eris is an extreme case way outside the disc some 40+ degrees! Anyway this and the scientific debate that followed caused Astronomers to rightfully so deem Pluto a dwarf planet, also the fact that Pluto resides in the inner portion of the Kuiper Belt makes me agree without a doubt agree. It will be interesting to see the surface of such a small world as Pluto which is roughly 1/8 the size of our moon.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Originally Posted by Motor Daddy

It's all a gear set. Entropy driven, according to the second law.

Yea, post 12 shows a gearset. We rest our case huh.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Chicagogoat

Yes it's a very cool moment right now for humankind to learn more about our solar system. Pluto's downgrade to a "dwarf planet" is thanks to the January '05 discovery of a larger dwarf planet called Eris which has a crazy huge elliptical orbit that brings it so far out that it's said to be known as one of the most distant objects observed by man in the solar system. Pluto also has an elliptical orbit that is slightly outside the plane of the solar disc but Eris is an extreme case way outside the disc some 40+ degrees! Anyway this and the scientific debate that followed caused Astronomers to rightfully so deem Pluto a dwarf planet, also the fact that Pluto resides in the inner portion of the Kuiper Belt makes me agree without a doubt agree. It will be interesting to see the surface of such a small world as Pluto which is roughly 1/8 the size of our moon.

Very interesting post & I had no idea until I read this & went looking. Several objects now believed to be orbiting the sun on very distant & unusual orbits.

[Motor Daddy]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Very interesting post & I had no idea until I read this & went looking. Several objects now believed to be orbiting the sun on very distant & unusual orbits.

Look at all that radiation FORCING the planets AWAY! As if they are all pistons on the power stroke!!

[Motor Daddy]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Yea, post 12 shows a gearset. We rest our case huh.

Who said anything about resting the case? It ain't over till it's over!!