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Hail Hydra

Jul
16

Attention all Pluto Flyby watchers, we finally have Hydra (Pluto’s smallest moon) in our sights. It’s still looking like an 8-bit moon, but this is currently the best view of it so far.

Not much to look at now, but we’ll have clearer images coming in as New Horizons flies past Pluto and farther out to its moons. Since Hydra’s discovery in 2005, it has only been known as a fuzzy dot of uncertain shape, size and reflectivity.

Well, at least it has upgraded from a fuzzy dot to a fuzzy blob! We also now know that it is 28 miles wide by 19 miles long. So there! You can’t hide from us anymore, Hydra!

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Journey to the heart of Pluto

Jul
15

In a hugely impressive journey spanning almost 10 years (New Horizons launched 19 January 2006!), and 5 billion kilometers later, we’re finally going to be able to find out a lot more about this mysterious dwarf planet.

We’ve since had confirmation from New Horizons that everything is working as it should, and we should be receiving packets of information it amassed during the flyby.

Really exciting. Some of the things the mission hopes to find out from this endeavor are:

  • Geology and morphology of Pluto and it’s moon Charon
  • Map atmosphere and chemical compositions of Pluto and Charon’s surfaces
  • Find out if there are aliens

Of course, Pluto, having already anticipated this visit, put out this huge heart of welcome to Earthlings, as seen in the header image.

Did you know, despite it’s small size, Pluto has 5 moons circling it; Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.

pluto-charon

Here we see Pluto and it’s main man, Charon.

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