Keep it Coming

PRESSING: So, there was a flyby of Pluto this week, in case you hadn't heard. :)

See that photo up there ^^^?! It's mountains. On Pluto. Mountains the size of the Rockies. On Pluto. 

What a week!!!!!

This morning, at 10 Pacific time, there was a press conference from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physical Laboratory complex in Laurel, Maryland, with the latest Pluto news. 

Just a couple minutes into the broadcast on NASA TV, there was a crowd shot and my jaw hit my desk.

"That's Brian May!" I screamed, loud enough to scare the dogs.

Dr. Brian May, an astrophysicist, is probably better known as being a founding and forever member of the rock band Queen.

To be sure, Dr. May wasn't just there for publicity. Though this clip kind of cuts it off, Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, referred to Dr. May as a collaborator from Europe "here to help us work with the data a little bit."  Unfortunately, C-SPAN's embed code doesn't work here for some reason, but just follow this link.

The NASA team working on the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto is still clearly riding the high of the success so far. Pluto and its moons have already produced so many moments of amazement and wonderment! As Stern said during today's event, "The solar system saved the best for last!"

For instance, check out this fly over video, showing the frozen plains in Pluto's "heart" region, now officially named “Tombaugh Regio,” after Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto.

https://youtu.be/B6wK_RHwwY0

“This terrain is not easy to explain,” said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California via a NASA press release. “The discovery of vast, craterless, very young plains on Pluto exceeds all pre-flyby expectations.”

Within the 'heart' lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, per NASA. In fact, it looks so relatively new, it is possible that it's still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen plains region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains, and it has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s man-made satellite.
The graphic below explains how Pluto has a plasma tail. The dwarf planet is losing its atmosphere. 

Beyond Pluto, there's a region of cold, dense ionized gas tens stretching for thousands of miles. Turns out solar wind is stripping away Pluto's atmosphere, resulting in nitrogen ions forming a “plasma tail” heading out into the far reaches of our solar system. And we know all of this because of New Horizons. Remarkable!

More details are here: http://go.nasa.gov/1LrhgWS

TWO SCORE: Forty years ago today, Cold War relations between the United States and the Soviet Union warmed in a remarkable and meaningful way. 

On July 17, 1975, Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov and American astronaut Tom Stafford reached across the hatches of their docked Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft and shook hands, symbolically ending the space race between our nations that began in 1957.

Awesome artwork: NASA.gov

More than 200 miles above our common home, the astronauts and cosmonauts worked cooperatively, side by side, for the betterment of all mankind.

The partnership forged on Skylab gave root to the future International Space Station.

Former NASA astronaut Ron Garan has written an article about the historic handshake. You can check it out here: http://unreasonable.is/handshakes-in-space-and-on-earth/

Buzz Aldrin wrote an opinion piece for TIME about the handshake, as well:
http://time.com/3962777/buzz-aldrin-apollo-soyuz-space/?xid=tcoshare

TO THE MAX: Thanks to a Facebook post by the Seattle P-I, yesterday I learned that an art show featuring the work of pop art icon Peter Max is coming to Seattle.

I have loved Max's work forever (well, for my forever). I remember the stamp he designed back in 1974, for the World Expo in Spokane, WA. So groovy!

                                                  Public domain - US Postal Service stamp

I have no doubt CJ and Annabelle will appreciate Max's colorful style, and so we'll certainly attend the exhibit. But as a super big added bonus, the artist himself will be here for a couple of receptions, RSVP required. I immediately emailed the show producer and was happy to hear back from them quickly, saying we'll be on the list for his Saturday reception. Can't wait!