Figure 1 – Ice mountains on Pluto taken by the New Horizons Planetary Explorer, from NASA and in the public domain.

It seems most appropriate to end this week with an image of Pluto taken on its flyby from the New Horizons planetary explorer. Planetary explorer? The words really boggle the mind. The photograph shows ice mountains, most probably made of water, because the dominant ice forms on Pluto, methane and nitrogen, are not strong enough to support two mile high mountains. It is curious how Pluto now seems an old familiar friend despite its 1 billion mile distance from us. In reality nothing could be more alien.  And the mountains are relatively new, perhaps no more than 100 million years, judging from the degree of cratering. Hmm, says Mr. Spock. There are previously unknown terraforming mechanisms at play here! It is easy to say that these are previously unimaginable images.  But that is not really so. For hundreds of years we have imagined what if, and the what if’s are invariably cast in the mindset of the technology of the day. That’s the delightful quaintness of writers like Jules Verne.  And in the meanwhile robotic eyes take us, through photography and other instrumentation, on an amazing journey, that more and more seems to be an integral part of human destiny.