New Horizons

SarahBM · 08-07-2015 10:03pm

Amazing and beautiful!

Maximus Alexander · 08-07-2015 11:06pm

Hmmzis wrote: »

And the first images from yesterday are up now. It's becoming more and more detailed and more and more puzzling. There don't appear to be any huge or big craters, it's strangely reflective (sort of like clouds or mist or frost maybe, haven't got a clue to be honest).

I've managed to enhance part of the image:

That's no moon!

Curly Judge · 08-07-2015 11:33pm

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I've managed to enhance part of the image:

That's no moon!

George Lucas waz 'ere!

SarahBM · 08-07-2015 11:45pm

Is that Jar Jar Binx I see???

_Tombstone_ · 09-07-2015 2:04am

It's gonna take 16 months apparently to send back all the data they'll collect over the next week.

Their's a sky at night special called Pluto Revealed on Monday 20th at 10 on BBC4.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk7h

I'm sick of all these blurry pics.

Curly Judge · 09-07-2015 2:56pm

Pluto's heart is now showing:

Captain Chaos · 09-07-2015 2:58pm

Looks more like an X to me than a heart assuming what the bottom right side turns out like.

irishgeo · 09-07-2015 9:39pm

in reality how far away from pluto when it passes by and how fast will it going?

_Tombstone_ · 09-07-2015 9:52pm

irishgeo wrote: »

in reality how far away from pluto when it passes by and how fast will it going?

13,000Km away, whizzing past at 14Km/s.

In 4 days, 14 hours and 57 minutes.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

MadYaker · 10-07-2015 3:55am

Isn't it just a big lump of ice and rock?

Id be far more interested in sending probes like this to examine the moons around Jupiter.

shedweller · 10-07-2015 8:10am

MadYaker wrote: »

Isn't it just a big lump of ice and rock?

Id be far more interested in sending probes like this to examine the moons around Jupiter.

Its going to happen alright. I think there's landers planned as well, although not Europa.
We must attempt no landing there.

ps200306 · 10-07-2015 8:54am

MadYaker wrote: »

Isn't it just a big lump of ice and rock?

That's what the dinosaurs said! :eek:

Curly Judge · 10-07-2015 9:39am

MadYaker wrote: »

Isn't it just a big lump of ice and rock?

And what exactly do you think this gaff is made up of?

Maximus Alexander · 10-07-2015 9:41am

Curly Judge wrote: »

And what exactly do you think this gaff is made up of?

Or Jupiter's moons for that matter! :pac:

Curly Judge · 10-07-2015 11:29pm

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-missions-have-their-eyes-peeled-on-pluto

NASA brings a whole fleet of its heavy guns to bear on Pluto as the flyby date approaches.

Curly Judge · 10-07-2015 11:39pm

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php

Only three and a half days left until closest encounter.

greedygoblin · 10-07-2015 11:48pm

Curly Judge wrote: »

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-missions-have-their-eyes-peeled-on-pluto

NASA brings a whole fleet of its heavy guns to bear on Pluto as the flyby date approaches.

It's great to see that Kepler has been revived.

Curly Judge · 11-07-2015 12:17am

greedygoblin wrote: »

It's great to see that Kepler has been revived.

Yeah ...Its an awesome piece of kit!

_Tombstone_ · 11-07-2015 2:34am

Some good little vids here "Pluto in a minute" if you've 10mins to spare.

Talks about speeds, not knowing when to start taking pics cuz they don't actually know "exactly" where pluto is, why Horizon can't stop. Good stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/user/NASANewHorizons/videos

Will Pluto be reclassified as a Planet? Maybe.

Q&A with some of the main people.

http://www.popsci.com/could-new-horizons-probe-reinstate-plutos-status-planet

greedygoblin · 11-07-2015 11:59am

That 3rd criterion in the official definition always seemed a bit wishy washy to me. He made a good point that if Pluto fails the test then Neptune must, by extension, also fail.

Even if the dwarf planet category remains in place, at the very least I hope this mission will lead to a more robust definition.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-07-2015 3:23pm

_Tombstone_ · 12-07-2015 1:19am

Pluto flyby team AMA Tuesday Morning

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/

Maximus Alexander · 13-07-2015 9:50am

Latest from Pluto at a mere 1 million km:

And Charon:

namloc1980 · 13-07-2015 10:25am

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Latest from Pluto at a mere 1 million km:

And Charon:

Amazing looking places. Looks like a huge fault or chasm on Charon's right side in that image.

Curly Judge · 13-07-2015 4:23pm

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/charon_annotated.jpg?itok=6voWNtgd

The junior partner makes an entrance.

shedweller · 13-07-2015 5:42pm

I have nasa's "eyes on the solar system" up on my pc. One thing i would like to know is: is what i see on screen "live" or based on the received signal, in this case 4.5hrs delayed? So if nasa sends a signal to new horizons to point LORRI at pluto, does the "live" image i see on my pc move at the same time as the real thing. This is important stuff!!

Maximus Alexander · 13-07-2015 5:51pm

shedweller wrote: »

I have nasa's "eyes on the solar system" up on my pc. One thing i would like to know is: is what i see on screen "live" or based on the received signal, in this case 4.5hrs delayed? So if nasa sends a signal to new horizons to point LORRI at pluto, does the "live" image i see on my pc move at the same time as the real thing. This is important stuff!!

NASA aren't sending instructions to the probe anymore, it's all automated.

With respect to the photos updating, they wouldn't be in any way 'live' (even accounting for the 4.5 hour lag). The probe will be collecting a lot of data, not just photographs, and its connection to Earth is somewhere in the region of 1 kilobit per second, it also can't send data to Earth all the time, it needs to rotate and point its antenna in our direction to do so.

During the encounter it will go quiet, do its work, and only begin transmitting to Earth again once it has left the Pluto system. It will start back up with a status report which will let NASA know whether it completed its mission before it starts beaming back the goods.

shedweller · 13-07-2015 6:05pm

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

NASA aren't sending instructions to the probe anymore, it's all automated.

With respect to the photos updating, they wouldn't be in any way 'live' (even accounting for the 4.5 hour lag). The probe will be collecting a lot of data, not just photographs, and its connection to Earth is somewhere in the region of 1 kilobit per second, it also can't send data to Earth all the time, it needs to rotate and point its antenna in our direction to do so.

During the encounter it will go quiet, do its work, and only begin transmitting to Earth again once it has left the Pluto system. It will start back up with a status report which will let NASA know whether it completed its mission before it starts beaming back the goods.

Cheers for that. Yeah i was reading a bit on the planetary societies website and it said as much. On the "eyes on the solar system" it is a computer rendering of the probe but it is rotating slowly at the moment with all its sensors lighting up various areas of pluto, charon etc. I was wondering if this was "real time" or not. I suppose it is??
Anyway, 18h45m left to go! Popcorn is ready!:)

Maximus Alexander · 13-07-2015 7:17pm

shedweller wrote: »

Cheers for that. Yeah i was reading a bit on the planetary societies website and it said as much. On the "eyes on the solar system" it is a computer rendering of the probe but it is rotating slowly at the moment with all its sensors lighting up various areas of pluto, charon etc. I was wondering if this was "real time" or not. I suppose it is??
Anyway, 18h45m left to go! Popcorn is ready!:)

Ah I guess I misunderstood you.

I haven't looked at Eyes on the Solar System myself, but I'd bet it would be 'live', since they know exactly what the probe should be doing right now.

shedweller · 13-07-2015 7:38pm

I was just playing around with it and the preview button allows you to ffwd through tomorrows events at any speed you wish. Really busy day ahead!

New Horizons

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