NASA’s New Horizons — which launched back in January 2006 with the same CPU as the one used in the original Sony PlayStation — started sending high resolution color photos of Pluto back to Earth last Monday night. You’ve probably seen this now-famous photo several times this week, perhaps when Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson were arguing about planet status:
That pink color is from tholins, created when the Sun’s ultraviolet light hits the abundant methane molecules present on Pluto. Assume we made a fart joke there and we’ll move on to the memes. Speaking of which, the internet was quick to use New Horizons as impetus to create photoshops, jokes, cheeky topographical maps and NSFW poems.
Truly, this is a momentous human achievement, so BRING ON THE DICK JOKES.
First high resolution image of Pluto causes concern: pic.twitter.com/ZVIT0BEFX6
— R Paul Wilson (@rpaulwilson) July 14, 2015
https://twitter.com/danika_rugg/status/621199913850961920
These pluto memes are giving me life pic.twitter.com/78sgCx1Ogz
— Julia Wilde (@Julia_SCI) July 14, 2015
Annotated Pluto pic http://t.co/CarDiQ5ZfD pic.twitter.com/v9hyPKnOj4
— Dean Lombard (@darkdirk) July 14, 2015
When you kick Pluto to the planetary curb but then drive by her orbit really slow. pic.twitter.com/xSdj8TfNVV
— Judge Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) July 15, 2015
https://twitter.com/thekyleherfurth/status/621095601699209217
I once showed Pluto to Pluto. He looked delighted. Or maybe that’s his reaction to everything. pic.twitter.com/mhLZ5t7LoN
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) July 8, 2015
And finally, Conan shows us what’s really going on with that “heart” on Pluto.
Told you there’d be dick jokes.
(Via Bad Astronomy, Kotaku, Quartz, Buzzfeed, Boing Boing, Neatorama, Reddit, mfrissen and Team Coco)