This is one of the highest resolution images of Pluto released so far. I have reduced the size so I can display it here.
I remember fifty years ago, as a young boy, reading books about our solar system, when images of the outer planets were fuzzy blobs at best. I am a techie, I am into science, and I am absolutely delighted that I live in a time and an age where I can see an image of Pluto, an object 4.7 billion miles away, with this clarity.
Light itself takes 4.6 hours to get there. The New Horizons spacecraft which took this picture, flying by Pluto at a speed of 50,000 km/hour, took 9 years and 8 months to travel there.
And I get to sit here and post this picture on my blog.
Amazing.
Actually, your image didn’t appear. Here is a link to it and 7 others.
Stunning! You’re right — we live in a wonderful time.
http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/space/article/Latest-Pluto-photos-show-a-cryptic-scaly-planet-6529854.php
Thanks for alerting me to this. It showed in IE and Chrome, but not in Safari and possibly others. I have since fixed it. I think it’s ok now.