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
