This is incredible. They managed to launch from Earth a spacecraft the size of a grand piano, fast enough that it reached the Moon in nine hours, use Jupiter's gravity pull to slingshot it across space and make it pass 8000 miles from Pluto. 8000 miles isn't big. It's tiny. It's the Earth's diameter. It's 1/375 000 000 of the whole distance it traveled.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
Space travel always made me daydream a lot since I'm a kid.
It reminds me of an excerpt from the book Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. The accuracy with which they launched they voyager spacecraft was the equivalent of throwing a dart from Seattle and hitting the bullseye in Dallas.
I know right? Space travel and exploration is just down right stupefying. The math and physics alone is mind bending. Some of the early pictures are showing Pluto as yellow? That is cool (no pun intended).
Surface colors vary from white carbon monoxide frost (the bright area in the middle image), to dark orange and charcoal black regions in which ultraviolet radiation from the Sun is presumably breaking down methane ice molecules, creating a carbon-rich molasses-colored sludge, and lighter gases which quickly freeze, to create the brighter regions.
This is incredible. They managed to launch from Earth a spacecraft the size of a grand piano, fast enough that it reached the Moon in nine hours, use Jupiter's gravity pull to slingshot it across space and make it pass 8000 miles from Pluto. 8000 miles isn't big. It's tiny. It's the Earth's diameter. It's 1/375 000 000 of the whole distance it traveled.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
Space travel always made me daydream a lot since I'm a kid.
It reminds me of an excerpt from the book Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. The accuracy with which they launched they voyager spacecraft was the equivalent of throwing a dart from Seattle and hitting the bullseye in Dallas.
I know right? Space travel and exploration is just down right stupefying. The math and physics alone is mind bending. Some of the early pictures are showing Pluto as yellow? That is cool (no pun intended).
Apparently Pluto has a reddish hue which has been known for quite some time.
Interesting! I got my information from the links below.
http://i.space.com/images/i/000/007/793/i02/ig390-hubble-16-02.jpg?1296061825
http://cseligman.com/text/planets/pluto.htm
They make me feel dumb.