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[i]Speeding to its closest point of approach during what is described in the news as the flyby of Pluto and its Moons, NASA's New Horizons satellite completes a nine and a half year journey through our Solar System to take this remarkable photo in true color on July 13, 2015, only 16 hours prior to its closest point of approach to dwarf planet Pluto and its Moon system (Note: data is corrected from my earlier posting). Traveling at the speed of light over a distance of 3.12 billion miles back to Earth, this missing photo of Pluto is taken by the New Horizons satellite from a distance to Pluto of 476,000 miles / 766,000 km. On its closest point of approach date, July 14, 2015, the satellite will dramatically shave this distance to only 7,800 miles / 12,500 km and will complete our Solar System's family portrait. Transmission of this Pluto photo takes 4 hours and 25 minutes for it to be received at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA. Also noted in news releases by NASA is the appearance on the surface of Pluto of a geographic region with the graphic outline of a heart, an unusual and warm welcome from this icy dwarf planet to us on Earth from the outermost edges of our Solar System.[/i] Credit NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI. [i]The flyby of Pluto was noted by friend and space cover collector, Pete Sarmiento, who obtained hand cancels on space covers he made for the historic Pluto flyby event as it was being observed and tracked by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory staff. Pete's space covers of the Pluto flyby were appropriately canceled at the Main Office, July 14, 2015, Laurel, Maryland, 20707, USA, on this historic date. Many thanks, Pete, for this space cover of the week![/i] [b]Space Cover #327: Pluto Has A Heart![/b] "Pluto is an absolutely amazing system," comments former NASA Science Division Head and Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado, for the New Horizons satellite flyby of Pluto and its Moons. By way of historical perspective, NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 satellites completed their Grand Tour of our Solar System in 1989, with Voyager 2 speeding by large planet Neptune and establishing the outer boundary of the Solar System at the time. On these journeys, Pluto was omitted. Now, twenty-six and a half years later, the New Horizons satellite has reset our goal post of exploration at 3.12 billion miles in exploring Pluto and its Moons at the outermost edge of our Solar System and also enabling a further option for the satellite to explore more extreme and remote Kuiper Belt objects and to expand our knowledge of the Solar System. "I think, first of all," Stern remarks in an interview concerning the New Horizons satellite flyby of Pluto, "…there's more interest in Pluto than there was in the (Voyager 2) Neptune encounter, and that's just a fact. Some of that's got to do with Pluto being the farthest frontier. Even when they flew by Neptune, everybody knew Pluto was farther. Secondly, Pluto has a brand. To different people, it's different things. It's scientifically intensely compelling." Stern continues, "Pluto and the Earth have the atmospheres, the seasons, the snows, the climate. The Moon is dry, and by comparison, Charon (largest Moon of Pluto) is dry. It's smaller and grayer. It doesn't have an atmosphere. There are great analogies with the Earth to compare, and they were formed through the same mechanism — a giant impact." He concludes, "For exploration, it's a milestone in human achievement. It will probably be, for a very long time, the farthest thing that's ever been explored…." Not only does Pluto have a heart, we do too! Artist's rendering of New Horizons satellite at closest point of approach of Pluto with its largest Moon Charon at the satellite's flyby, July 14, 2015. Credit NASA.
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