*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

Large asteroids could pose a threat to earth so we are looking at ways of preventing such impacts with ESA's preliminary Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).

One of the main objectives of AIM is to get a better understanding of what asteroids are made of as this is crucial to improving deflection technologies which will be able to set them off a collision course.

 
Nasa is set to make an amazing announcement about Pluto on Thursday.

I wonder what it will be.

Dr Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and Principal Investigator on Nasa's New Horizons Pluto mission, made the exciting announcement whilst speaking at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Whilst speaking about the latest images of Pluto captured by the New Horizons probe, Stern said: "Nasa won't let me tell you what we're going to tell you on Thursday. It's amazing."
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Glaucus said:
Nasa is set to make an amazing announcement about Pluto on Thursday.

I wonder what it will be.
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Well, maybe those rumours about Minnie Mouse were true? *joke*

Will be interesting to see what they announce... Clearly the place is far from being a baron, dead ice-desert!
 
The first color images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue:

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Pluto’s Blue Sky: Pluto’s haze layer shows its blue color in this picture taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturn’s moon Titan. The source of both hazes likely involves sunlight-initiated chemical reactions of nitrogen and methane, leading to relatively small, soot-like particles (called tholins) that grow as they settle toward the surface. This image was generated by software that combines information from blue, red and near-infrared images to replicate the color a human eye would perceive as closely as possible.

Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
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So not only blue skies and but the Ralph spectral composition mapper has also detected water ice on Pluto.

More:

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/nh-finds-blue-skies-and-water-ice-on-pluto
 
Spacedeck said:
@Cosimo - any good space exploration reading material? I think I'm going to begin reading my big book of Wonders of the Solar system / Universe soon. Others to consider?
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Galaxy: Mapping the Cosmos by James Geach

It takes a look at the origins of the universe, how we study it, what we have and maybe will find. The focus is on galaxies looking at their formation and evolution. Quite an amazing look at extragalactic astronomy. Easy to read and beautifully illustrated. If you have an interest in the universe then you won't be disappointed.
 
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