pluto

Ever since I was a kid I have had an interest in astronomy.  I never considered being an astronomer or anything to that extent, but I have always enjoyed learning more about what goes on in the heavens.

I remember very distinctly going to a planetarium when I was eight years old—the same age my son NJ is now—and seeing a presentation on the planets.  A supposed landscape for each planet (or one of its moons) was projected on the screen, and I was mesmerized by the idea of what it would be like to look around the landscape of Mercury, Mars, or some other body in our solar system.  When the presentation got to Pluto, though, I was disappointed.  The narrator noted that, "No one knows for sure what the landscape of Pluto looks like."  Ever since that day I have had to know.

When I was in sixth grade my family traveled to Northern Arizona to see my grandparents, and we visited the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff on the trip.  I learned on that trip that Pluto was discovered at that observatory.

Because of this history, when NASA launched the New Horizons probe in 2006—the same year our son was born—I took note.  I imagined how exciting it would be in nine years to see images of Pluto beamed back to earth with the understanding that my excitement needed to be tempered with some patience since it was a more-than-nine-year mission.

Fast forward to today, and I can honestly say that one of the things I am most looking forward to this year is the imagery data that is scheduled to be sent back to earth in mid-July from the New Horizons probe.  I haven't told Golden this, but I seriously considered taking a day off from work to keep tabs on the updates.  For various reasons doing so probably doesn't make sense.  It was a consideration, though.

I leave off with the following image that NASA has posted that has me wanting more.  New Horizons is close enough to Pluto to get a blurry view of it and its moon Charon.  I look forward to something in much higher resolution in the coming months.