Pluto a Go-Go

OH SO CLOSE: After nine years and over 3 billion miles, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is set to make its closest flyby of Pluto in just a few hours (from time of this publication).

       Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
New Horizons is already 'phoning home' with data that has let us get to know Pluto better. For example, we have learned Pluto (at 2,370 kilometers (1,473 miles) in diameter or so) is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt, it has gas (nitrogen) escaping its atmosphere, and that it has polar ice caps (nitrogen and methane ice, that is). 

At 4:43 a.m. Pacific time, the probe will reach closest-approach (7,800 miles [12,500 kilometers] above the dwarf planet's surface). According to a photographer I know who's at mission control right now, the images "will be so clear that if New Horizons passed Earth at the same altitude it would reveal the ponds of New York's Central Park!" 

If you're awake, you can watch coverage of the flyby on NASA TV (www.nasa.gov/ntv) or on the NASA app for Smartphones. NASA coverage starts at 4:30 a.m. Pacific time.
While the probe is making its closest pass, it will take about 150 photographs as it travels on out into deeper space. These images will be (by two orders of magnitude) better than any of the 'best' images we have seen of Pluto ever before. (Below, Pluto is pictured with its moon Charon.) 

Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI



I love that the Google Doodle is of New Horizons' flyby.
http://www.google.com/doodles/new-horizons-pluto-flyby

One super cool thing I learned today: Some of the ashes of the man who discovered Pluto 85 years ago, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, are on board New Horizons. How 'bout that for a remarkable journey in the afterlife? 

From Kansas, Tombaugh was just 24 years old when he was working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona and made the discovery. How awesome that he's along for this historic ride. Follow this link for a look at the log book from the night Tombaugh found Pluto: https://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_jjj_unprocessed_data/19486086900/

ON THE ROAD AGAIN:  This weekend the MPA student body pulled up stakes and hit the road for an annual camping outing.

This is what the car looked like before it pulled out of the driveway ...

Oh. My.

Their first stop was overnight in Vancouver, USA, where they visited a good family friend. They all went to Dairy Queen on Main Street for desert. It was the spot where CJ, as a pre-toddler, got his first taste of chocolate when we gave him a bite of a Peanut Buster Parfait. He screamed bloody murder, as if we had tried to kill him. 

He liked it better this go-round.

Sunday, the campers reached their destination, Dorena Reservoir in central Oregon.

It looks like they rather quickly got to playing cards with their cousins.

They enjoyed a pretty sunset, but Christian tells me unexpected rain dumped on their tent the first night. Fortunately, they were able to round up enough tarps to keep from getting soaked.