New Horizons

Little 3X stack of Pluto using the latest New Horizon pics using Registax 6!



Sources

shedweller wrote: »

Top job! It really brings out the detail eh?!

It sure did! I wish we had better res pictures but not for a long time, I understand the calibrated images wont be avail for at least 9 months to a year!

Curly Judge wrote: »

Anyone see anything wrong with this official NASA graphic?

?

Curly Judge wrote: »

Anyone see anything wrong with this official NASA graphic?

They accidentally made a graphic for ants?

Hint: what is one of the reasons the Pluto probe is travelling so fast?

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Because it almost at it's aphelion in it's orbit?

Sorry....I screwed up on post 160.
Please read the edited version again

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Pluto's orbit should cut just inside Neptune's at that point shown but it doesn't. According to that graphic Pluto never comes closer to the sun than Neptune at any point in it's orbit which is wrong. Unless it does off plane axis that can't be seen at this angle but is possibly there.

Your last bit is right. Pluto's orbit is highly inclined to the ecliptic, so the angle we are looking at here is misleading. In fact, if you were to view it as a flat plane, and bearing in mind that the planets are orbiting the sun counter-clockwise as viewed from the celestial north pole (which you know this view is from, by looking at the direction that New Horizons orbits the Sun after leaving Earth) you would imagine that Pluto is only now heading for perihelion, whereas it passed it decades ago when it was multiple AU "above" the orbit of Neptune. An interesting factoid is that Pluto approaches Uranus closer than it ever does Neptune (about 17 AU), due to its distance above the ecliptic plane whenever it crosses Neptune's orbit.

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Because it [Pluto is] almost at it's aphelion in it's orbit?

Wouldn't Pluto be moving fastest at perihelion?

Curly Judge wrote: »

Hint: what is one of the reasons the Pluto probe is travelling so fast?

Are you getting at the fact that New Horizons slingshotted around Jupiter, but its trajectory doesn't appear to come close to Jupiter in the graphic? Could that be explained by the fact that the graphic shows a snapshot in time as of now, so the planets have moved from the positions they were at when New Horizons crossed their orbits?

(Doh! Max. Alexander got in seconds before me! :pac: )

Is the earth visible that far out if it turned its camera back towards the sun?

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Ah, are you saying that the line should intersect with Jupiter?

I think Jupiter has moved since NH crossed its path.

For me the key word here is trajectory
New Horizons crossed the orbit of Jupiter nearly eight years ago.
I'm at a loss to know what the position of Jupiter today adds to our pool of information?

ps200306 wrote: »

A subtler form of the Jupiter conspiracy is that the NH Jupiter flyby was nearly 5.5 years ago, which in turn is nearly half a Jupiter orbit. In the graphic, it doesn't look like Jupiter has moved anything close to half an orbit, but could be just a perspective thing.

Curly Judge wrote: »

For me the key word here is trajectory
New Horizons crossed the orbit of Jupiter nearly eight years ago.
I'm at a loss to know what the position of Jupiter today adds to our pool of information?

Clearly I've forgotten how to subtract.
Yep, it was 8.5 years ago, three quarters of a Jupiter orbit, and the orbit is counter clockwise so it looks just about right!
My guess is whatever software produced the graphic puts in the positions of the planets, so it was easier to leave them in than take them out. :pac:

Paradoxically, this might be the least interesting time from an armchair observers point of view as the probe will be so busy absorbing and storing information that earth bound viewers will probably be left atthe back of the queue.
Rightly, if perhaps annoyingly, so!
It will take up to 16 months to get it all transmitted back to earth.

I'm no expert on these things but this is an astonishing achievement. To be taking detailed photos of a planetary bodies billions of kilometres away just blows the mind.

shedweller wrote: »

It is amazing what we can do.

With technology that's already 10 years old! Imagine something launched now

Exciting times

Isn't all this happening 4.5 hours ago? I thought the flypast was happening now and we won't know until the probe phones home again and then the 4.5 hour delay.

There be craters!

Thanks for the pics I'm on the go and on a dongle, and can't stream, so all shortcuts/pics appreciated ! Thought I'd have to wait till tonight for pictures, but the above is stunning !

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Thanks for the pics I'm on the go and on a dongle, and can't stream, so all shortcuts/pics appreciated ! Thought I'd have to wait till tonight for pictures, but the above is stunning !

Still got a long wait until the really good stuff comes in. But it's amazing to see a new planet come in to view for the first time, something that hasn't happened before in my lifetime.

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Ceres??, yes it has no moon/s but it's classed the same as Pluto.

I know, but it will never be the same as Pluto. Ceres is a big asteroid, Pluto is a planet dammit!