Pluto - Images from the New Horizons Spacecraft

Finally, some new images from New Horizons!

This shot of Pluto's atmosphere is stunning!


The closeup of the mountains is amazing as well. However...


The feature I found most remarkable is a potentially active nitrogen glacier! The ices may have evaporated from the surface and fallen into the mountains, re-compressed into solid ice again and flowed back onto the plain; a cycle nearly identical to water ice (snow) on Earth falling in the mountains, being compressed into ice and flowing downward in the form of a glacier.


Apologies for the first photos getting cut off on the top of the page but I wanted to post them as large as possible. The the full story and complete set of photos may be viewed the NASA link below:
Pluto - Backlit Panorama and Glacial Flows

The Future is Now: Indoor Lighting

     One of the downsides to living underground, or on the floor of a light-less alien ocean, is the lack of natural lighting. Most anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in a windowless office, worked in a basement - even a well lit one, or stayed in one of those new windowless bargain hotel rooms knows the close feeling of no windows and the fishbowl depression induced by faux lighting. Most of this effect can be alleviated by the addition of an artificial window. However, the major flaw in merely placing a television screen on a wall - even a high definition model - is that it is still lacking a significant element; sunlight.
     The clear solution to this problem would be an artificial window that could simulate natural light. Fortunately, a new company calling themselves CoeLux has developed an artificial skylight that can simulate natural sunlight. The innovation is quite a leap in technology and has dozens of applications. I, for one, want one in in my future home; assuming they can drop the price a bit below the current $68,000 in the next twenty years...


CoeLux Artificial Skylight Video

Ceres - The Dwarf Planet

As NASA's Dawn spacecraft approaches the dwarf planet Ceres - the largest body in the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter - it continues to send an impressive array of photos back to Earth. Dawn will pass nearest Ceres sometime in February (probably around the 25th) and we will finally get to see detailed photos of this fascinating dwarf planet. After Dawn passes Ceres, NASA will compile the data and map the planet.

Below is the latest composition of photographs:
Ceres spinning!