My current favorite camera is about to fly past Pluto

[Telecaster]

A mosaic of Sputnik Planum, part of the Tombaugh Regio (aka "the heart") on Pluto:

http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/sputnik-planum-pluto.html

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

New Pluto pics now showing up on NASA's New Horizons site. These are, for the first time, from the uncompressed data set captured by the spacecraft. Have a look via the Multimedia menu accessible here:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

Also I've attached a new pic of Pluto's moon Nix, colorized via previously downloaded spectral data. Nix is tiny…I think this is the highest res pic New Horizons was able to take of it.

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

OT, but while I'm at it, here's a new stitched pano from pics taken by the Curiosity rover on Mars. The rock is primarily sandstone.

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

This one just might get my vote for Landscape Photo of the Year. Released a couple hours ago. Of course it'll likely get topped multiple times before 2015 is over. 

Info here: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wows-in-spectacular-new-backlit-panorama

Full res version here: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-apluto-wide-9-17-15-final_0.png

Color version created by astrophotographer Damian Peach using, as he puts it, "global colour data."

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

More gorgeous hi-res Pluto images released today, including a 64mp composite of the whole planet (well, the sun-facing part visible to New Horizons as it flew past).

Here's the NASA page with links to the pics: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/perplexing-pluto-new-snakeskin-image-and-more-from-new-horizons

And here's a direct link to the big composite: http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/crop_p_color2_enhanced_release.png

I can't get the Big One to load fully right now, probably due to high demand, but it worked earlier.

Edit: here's a blog post from Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society explaining how the 8000x8000 Pluto image was put together: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/09241425-lose-yourself-in-this-pluto.html

-Dave-

[BJL]

More gorgeous hi-res Pluto images released today, including a 64mp composite of the whole planet (well, the sun-facing part visible to New Horizons as it flew past).
. . .
And here's a direct link to the big composite: http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/crop_p_color2_enhanced_release.png

The link is working and it is beautiful . . . though with no sense of scale, this looks more like a piece of Raku pottery than any flavor of planet.  Maybe like the moon landings, these photos were faked in a (pottery) studio!

[Telecaster]

The link is working and it is beautiful . . . though with no sense of scale, this looks more like a piece of Raku pottery than any flavor of planet.  Maybe like the moon landings, these photos were faked in a (pottery) studio!

Hehe. A good reason for a followup multi-craft mission, a la Mars, with an orbiter and a rover. The rover would provide surface-level detail & scale while the orbiter could image the rover on the surface and tie it all together.

It is funny that the more detailed the images become the less "real" they seem. Part of this is due to Pluto being an ice ball. It's shiny! We don't expect (Kuiper Belt dwarf) planets to glisten. 

-Dave-

[Telecaster]

More goodies from the New Horizons mission, this time featuring high-res images of Pluto's moon Charon.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-big-moon-charon-reveals-a-colorful-and-violent-history

-Dave-