2015-01-10, 12:30
Pluto May Harbor Wind-Whipped Dunes Of Ice And Soot
After nine years in flight, next week NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will finally begin science observations of Pluto and its burgeoning system of five known icy moons. On July 14, the spacecraft’s flyby to this dwarf planet system will culminate in a 10,000 km closest approach that should really “knock your socks off,” mission team member Will Grundy told Forbes. Grundy says the flyby may even confirm the existence of wind-swept surface dunes of ice and soot leftover from a time when Pluto may have had much more of an atmosphere than today.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedormine...uture-tech
After nine years in flight, next week NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will finally begin science observations of Pluto and its burgeoning system of five known icy moons. On July 14, the spacecraft’s flyby to this dwarf planet system will culminate in a 10,000 km closest approach that should really “knock your socks off,” mission team member Will Grundy told Forbes. Grundy says the flyby may even confirm the existence of wind-swept surface dunes of ice and soot leftover from a time when Pluto may have had much more of an atmosphere than today.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedormine...uture-tech