As the World was celebrating the deal with Iran & we here @ #Outsiders were busy w/late breaking developments, another pivotal development also occurred which we briefly reported on. We wanted to share this we received from the White House that is quite telling. As we went to press tonight, NASA noted that the New Horizons Interplanetary Probe has left our Solar System and has embarked to explore the true unknown...
The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111
May we truly live in Interesting times....
This morning, the United States became the first country to reach Pluto -- and the first country to explore the entire classical solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
NASA's New Horizons interplanetary probe has been making its way to Pluto since January 19, 2006, and has been providing the world with the sharpest photos ever seen of our Solar System's most prominent "dwarf planet." Today, it made its closest approach to Pluto yet -- about 8,000 miles -- at around 07:49:57 EDT.
Here's the photo they took -- which, despite traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), took four and a half hours to reach us here on Earth as it crossed the 3 billion miles between here and Pluto:
That we were able to get so close to Pluto today is a feat whose probability scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson likened to "a hole-in-one on a two-mile golf shot." He's right.
Every once in a while, a photo comes along that has the ability to shift not just how we see our place in the universe, but how we see ourselves -- not just as Americans, but as citizens of Earth.
This is one of those photos, and I hope you'll share it with someone today.
More soon --
John
Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
@whitehouseostp
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
@whitehouseostp
The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111
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