Pluto

[Akomine (OP)]

One of the most amazing human accomplishments is about to take place.

New Horizons is about to make its closest approach to Pluto. For the first time, we actually know what Pluto looks like. And it's pretty fucking cool.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Enjoy

Oh and here's the youtube channel if you're interested:

[Akomine (OP)]

This is the closest picture we have of Pluto at this time in history, at 2.5 million km from the planet.

In just two days, New Horizons will be just 12.5 thousand km from Pluto (that's REALLY close), and the pictures we will see will be historic.

[Akomine (OP)]

Aaaaaand there's a pretty cool program by Nasa you can grab called Eyes
http://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-pluto.html
It's like Kerbal Space Program's Solar System View and Vehicle View but real life.

[ChaosMushrooms]

[Akomine (OP)]

[Airbongo]

Ah yiss

[CSB]

Fake, could replicate in photoshop

[DoggyStomper]

Fake, could replicate in photoshop

do it fgt. Or are you too hick enough?

[CSB]

Fake, could replicate in photoshop

do it fgt. Or are you too hick enough?

Fuck no, last time i ordered photoshop it took like an hour of talking to a rep to cancel my membership to which they said they were gonna charge me like $50 for cancelling early lol

[Airbongo]

[Noket]

fake

[Airbongo]

fake

Nah, just the colour.

[Witchdoctor1]

fake

Nah, just the colour.

Looks like the old color enhanced photos of celestial bodies they used to put in science books WAY back in the day. I have a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica from the 1970's with photos like this in it.

[Akomine (OP)]

It's a partial-colour image. They use it because using a different spectrum of colours helps bring out different details than you'd normally see, and also because the camera on-board New Horizons that took this image likely isn't their regular Earth-like human visible spectrum camera (which they also have on NH, but it doesn't take images of this quality). This is likely more of a scientific image than your standard photo-realistic camera.

Kickass photo though. There's a bunch of stuff coming out now, and this is actually one of the less impressive images. They took this MASSIVE long terrain shot, and you can actually see the mountains and plains in 3d. I'll link to it later

[luisc99]

It's a partial-colour image. They use it because using a different spectrum of colours helps bring out different details than you'd normally see, and also because the camera on-board New Horizons that took this image likely isn't their regular Earth-like human visible spectrum camera (which they also have on NH, but it doesn't take images of this quality). This is likely more of a scientific image than your standard photo-realistic camera.

Kickass photo though. There's a bunch of stuff coming out now, and this is actually one of the less impressive images. They took this MASSIVE long terrain shot, and you can actually see the mountains and plains in 3d. I'll link to it later

Ako coming in here, bringing in the science. Whatever will happen next!

I've been reading about some of the pluto things recently though. Some of the pictures are amazing. I'm looking forward to this one though, and what it brings to our understanding of pluto.

[Witchdoctor1]

It's a partial-colour image. They use it because using a different spectrum of colours helps bring out different details than you'd normally see, and also because the camera on-board New Horizons that took this image likely isn't their regular Earth-like human visible spectrum camera (which they also have on NH, but it doesn't take images of this quality). This is likely more of a scientific image than your standard photo-realistic camera.

Kickass photo though. There's a bunch of stuff coming out now, and this is actually one of the less impressive images. They took this MASSIVE long terrain shot, and you can actually see the mountains and plains in 3d. I'll link to it later

I knew that they used partial-color images to enhance detail, but I did not know the bit about cameras using different parts of the light spectrum for things like this. I've used IR and FLIR cameras and optics many times, and the images they render are vastly different, but I was not aware of anything other than those and visible spectrum cameras. Thanks to you, I just spent an hour researching all the different camera devices and the different wavelengths that they can capture.

[Akomine (OP)]

Massive long terrain image that you should click on to see, too big for forum:
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/lorri_rider.png

[Akomine (OP)]

One of the best photos of Pluto yet, the full detailed picture of the dark side of the planet with just a lit crescent. Zoom in on the crescent and enjoy the detail
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-mp1_029918_destripe_large_bright.jpg

[Airbongo]

One of the best photos of Pluto yet, the full detailed picture of the dark side of the planet with just a lit crescent. Zoom in on the crescent and enjoy the detail
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-mp1_029918_destripe_large_bright.jpg

Badass pic.

[luisc99]

One of the best photos of Pluto yet, the full detailed picture of the dark side of the planet with just a lit crescent. Zoom in on the crescent and enjoy the detail
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-mp1_029918_destripe_large_bright.jpg

If you zoom in, you can see the stars in the background being elongated due to the long exposure. Just a bit right of the presumingly north pole of that photo though there is one "star" which has a streak perpendicular to the rest. It's probably nothing, but that'd be something of interest if I were the one studying these photos. Wait, that doesn't sound like a bad idea actually. Hm...

Little but off topic, but the Cassini probe recently made its last ever flyby of Enceladus, and there are some pretty cool raw images of that like this one of the whole moon, this one of the moon's crescent next to Saturn's rings or this one of one of the plumes of liquid it flew through.

It's amazing things like this that all you 'muricans need to want and vote for those who'll up NASA's budget so we can get more cool things. I mean, their budget is just under $20bn a year, which is less than the US spend on dog food, whereas the military get $600bn. I know the military's important please don't kill me witch but something seems wrong there.

Rant over. I'll go back to looking at pictures of stars near pluto before I go insane

[Akomine (OP)]

Luis those aren't stars, they are alien craft.

Cassini is really, really, truly cool. Quite possibly the coolest ever space probe. If someone wants to be blown away, just go look at Cassini's one-of-a-kind photos of other worlds.

Fuck the military. (Whatcha gonna do Witch?)