“You have covered the heavens with your majesty…. When I observe the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You set in place, what is man that You remember him…? Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!” (Psalm 8)
After the New Horizons spacecraft did a fly-by in the area of Pluto traveling at a comfortable 30,800 mph, I jotted down a few thoughts, which follow.
The rocketship sent back snapshots for our enjoyment.
Pluto is handsome and a little small for his age, but still quite the character. He’s definitely someone we wanted to know.
Pluto, we are told, is two-thirds the size of our moon. Its gravity is about 7 percent of ours. Its polar caps are made up of methane ice and nitrogen ice. A year on Pluto–one orbit around the sun–equals 248 of our years. (On Pluto, I would be not quite one-third of a year old!) Each day there–the time needed to rotate once on its axis–is the equivalent of 6.4 of our days. But that’s nothing….
On Pluto, the average temperature is a MINUS 365 degrees. Lordy!
Completely fascinating. I sat there watching the televised news conferences and a one-hour history of New Horizons in awe and wonder. I do love this.