PLUTO - King of the Dwarfs

The photos are coming in - slowly, and from 3 billion miles away - but Pluto is seeming way wilder than anybody thought; bigger and therefore less dense than thought with surface features that surprised most.  Less dense means more ice inside, a Nitrogen halo - really, an atmosphere…- coming from ?? ammonia, organics?? and bigger moves it back to larger than Eris and again the largest of the Kuiper belt objects. A planet again; no!  Too small, inside Neptune's orbit and a highly elliptical and inclined orbit will keep it a dwarf planet. But, all planets have modifiers in front of them these days, Terrestrial, Jovian or Gas Giant and we can only imagine the "planet" categories we'll need to cover the couple of thousand "objects" orbiting other stars/suns. It's big and hard to wrap our earth bound imaginations around the normal that is space.
Closer to home the stormy, sultry weather of the early week is on it's way out with a couple of coolish, dry days here on the east coast before July conditions return for the weekend. Enjoy Thursday and Friday in Va., the relief will be short lived. That may give the central US a break from the oppressive heat but with all weather that's unlikely to last. The 3rd storm of the Atlantic hurricane season slid up the coast with little fanfare, maybe a brush with the Canadian Maritimes.
I haven't checked on Colima in a day or two, it wasn't on last weeks list but SURPRISE - it's erupting now and predictions are showing continued volatility, like we can predict a volcano's actions…
We can predict earthquakes for Oklahoma, as long as they trade short term jobs and money for a stable planet, fracking: bad news for long term planet stability.

But, I need to get out on this planet and begin to rein in the jungle growing in the few openings around the tirehouse. My tomatoes and peppers have survived my absence and are now free to turn that sunlight in to carbon treats. Get out and enjoy the middle of July, today on Earth (or Pluto…).

Pluto (complements of Bryanne and NASA)