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New Horizons Update: Methane Detected; New Images of Pluto and Charon
- r721 11y agoA couple of other updates from yesterday: "NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Stays the Course to Pluto" http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150701 http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20... "New Horizons Color Images Reveal Two Distinct Faces of Pluto, Series of Spots that Fascinate" http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150701-2 http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20...
- monk_e_boy 11y agoToday I learn that Pluto and Charon are tidally locked to each other. > Charon always presents the same face to Pluto, and > Pluto always presents the same face to Charon: from > any position on either body, the other is always at > the same position in the sky, or always obscured http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8427/are-there-any-known-objects-in-a-dual-tidally-locked-orbit http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/8427/are-there-...
- ajross 11y agoJust to be clear: this is not a new discovery. The mutual tidal locking has been known experimentally for quite a while, and can be predicted with high confidence based on their sizes and distance.
- jug 11y agoWow! The imagery is very quickly getting better now.