You are browsing the archive for Pluto Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
19 July 2015
XKCD’s Take on Pluto
In case you missed it, the XKCD cartoon has a nice take on Pluto. This reminds me of the classic cartoon on the electromagnetic spectrum. Oh and while we are on the subject of cartoons- Opus is back! There is something about geeks and Bloom County that I can’t put my finger on, but nearly all my fellow geeks did a snoopy dance when they saw that Berke Breathed …
16 July 2015
Neil deGrasse Tyson & Stephen Colbert Talk About Pluto
What happens when two of the best science communicators eat a Klondike Bar and talk about Pluto. Watch and see. Oh, and yes I called Colbert a great science communicator, and here is why.
15 July 2015
NASA Releases New, and AMAZING Images of Pluto
You can sell your Planetary geology text book as a collector’s item now. It’s being rewritten! The New Horizons probe sent back stunning pictures of 3500 meter high mountains on Pluto today. Young mountains. NASA has a video that shows where on Pluto this image is from. More from NASA: Icy mountains on Pluto and a new, crisp view of its largest moon, Charon, are among the several discoveries announced …
13 July 2015
This is Why You Have Not Seen A Bunch of Images of Pluto This Weekend
July 14, 2015 is going to be an important date in the history book of space exploration. At about 7:50 AM Tuesday, New York time, the New Horizons probe will pass about 12,500 km from Pluto, and the most sophisticated set of instruments ever put in deep space will record high resolution images of the dwarf planet. Images of Pluto will be recorded in visible and infrared light, while other …
9 July 2015
Best Image Ever of Pluto and Charon
New Horizons will get closer every day from now until July 14.
5 July 2015
New Horizon Probe Has Anomaly- Switches to back-up Computer
Here is an Update from NASA late on Saturday night…. New Horizons Team Responds to Spacecraft Anomaly The New Horizons spacecraft experienced an anomaly the afternoon of July 4 that led to a loss of communication with Earth. Communication has since been reestablished and the spacecraft is healthy. The mission operations center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft — …
7 May 2015
You Really Cannot Imagine How Far Away Pluto Is, But This May Help.
I aired a story tonight I have wanted to share for over 20 years. It has to do with the New Horizons mission which will fly by Pluto in July and allow us to see what it looks like for the FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, but I want to give you an idea of how very, very far away Pluto is. You will likely see some news reports in …
25 March 2015
New Horizons is Approaching Pluto. Here’s How Very, Very, Far Away Pluto Is
Most folks are surprised to know that we have no idea what the surface of Pluto looks like. Even using the Hubble Telescope, we only see a bright star like image, but that is about to change this summer when the New Horizon’s spacecraft flies by it. We are sure to see some strange features on both Pluto and its moons. Would you like to help name them? I’ll tell …
22 December 2014
Eleven Years of Hard Work for A Few Frantic Days of Science
I’m eating lunch and talking with my friend Bud Ward (Yale Climate Connections) at the AGU meeting in San francisco Wednesday, when I see a gentleman with a sticker on his lap-top that says “MY OTHER VEHICLE IS ON THE WAY TO PLUTO”. Now, I had to find out more, so here is a short clip using my iPhone talking with Michael Buckley of the New Horizons mission to Pluto. …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.