Photos show canyons on Pluto’s big moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Pluto’s big moon, Charon, is being revealed in all its rugged glory.
NASA released the best color pictures yet of Charon on Thursday. The images were taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby of Pluto in July and transmitted to Earth 1½ weeks ago.
Massive canyons and fractures are clearly visible on Charon, which is more than half of Pluto’s size. The canyons stretch more than 1,000 miles above the equator, across the entire face of Charon. These canyons are four times as long as the Grand Canyon and, in places, twice as deep.
Even better pictures are anticipated as flight controllers at Johns Hopkins University receive more data from New Horizons, now about 3 billion miles from Earth.
Californians continue to trim water usage
FRESNO, Calif. – Californians cut water use by 27 percent in August, marking the third consecutive month that residents and businesses surpassed the 25 percent conservation goal set by Gov. Jerry Brown to deal with the relentless drought, officials said Thursday.
The figures released by the State Water Resources Control Board showed a slight decrease in savings from the 31 percent posted for July a development that raised concerns among some officials.
However, board chair Felicia Marcus said the slippage was not completely surprising given the heavy rains that drenched Southern California in July and prompted people to turn off sprinklers.
Oklahoma seeking to delay executions
McALESTER, Okla. – Oklahoma’s attorney general on Thursday asked a court to delay all scheduled executions while the state reviews how it received the wrong drug as it prepared to lethally inject an inmate.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt said Oklahoma needed time to sort out why its Department of Corrections received a shipment of potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride for Richard Glossip’s execution that was to occur Wednesday. Pruitt’s request to the state Court of Criminal Appeals came hours after Gov. Mary Fallin said she was confident the state could resolve its problems in time for an execution set for next week.
“The Office of the Attorney General needs time to evaluate the events that transpired on Sept. 30, 2015, ODOC’s acquisition of a drug contrary to protocol, and ODOC’s internal procedures relative to the protocol,” Pruitt’s office said in its request to the court.
Associated Press
