"New Horizons" has arrived near Pluto

For the first time since NASA's Voyager mission in 1989, a spacecraft, New Horizons, has flown by an unexplored planet.

New discoveries from Pluto:

• Nitrogen escapes from Pluto's atmosphere
• The lone polar cap is indeed an icy cap but made from methane and nitrogen ice
• Pluto is larger than previously thought

Over the next few days the photographic resolutions are set to jump from 15km/pixel to <100metres/pixel



www.nasa.gov

And a Sign for
them is the Night:
We withdraw
therefrom the Day,
and behold they
are plunged in
darkness;
And the sun runs
his course for a
period determined
for him: that is the
decree of (Him),
the Exalted in
Might, the All-
Knowing.
And the Moon,-
We have measured
for her mansions
(to traverse) till
she returns like
the old (and
withered) lower
part of a date-
stalk.

It is not permitted
to the Sun to catch
up the Moon, nor
can the Night
outstrip the Day:
Each (just) swims
along in (its own)
orbit (according to
Law).

Great journey...love space exploration and the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft are very very far away now with out-dated technology...hope this spacecraft can send better images and data but will not catch the earlier spacecrafts as it is travelling slower than them...did not get as much kick from Jupiter's gravity...

I was really disappointed when they downgraded Pluto's status as a full planet...we grew up knowing there were 9 planets...and, to me, this will always be the case...

The NASA and SPACE websites are painfully slow. They say it takes 4.5 hours for an image to reach earth from Pluto so they are still going to sift through all the photo's. Here is an artist's impression of Pluto and its moon in relation to our Earth and a real photo showing unexplained evenly-spaced dots on Pluto.



Can you see Pluto's "heart" on the left image?