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New Horizons

13567…16

Comments

  • #62
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭_Tombstone_


    Maximus Alexander wrote: »
    nh_zoom_bary_03-final.gif

    :)

    So heres the latest, possible snow cap.

    newhorizons_plutospin_apr2015.gif.CROP.original-original.gif

    Scientists suggest this brightening in Pluto's polar region might be caused by a "cap" of highly reflective snow on the surface. The "snow" in this case is likely to be frozen molecular nitrogen ice. New Horizons observations in July will determine definitively whether or not this hypothesis is correct.

    nh-weaver_2.jpg?itok=eZA477e0

    http://www.nasa.gov/pluto042915


  • #63
    Rubecula
    Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    From that Pluto looks either misshapen or a funny colour in places.


  • #64
    shedweller
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭shedweller


    I'm just amazed they got that detail out of those four raw images! There's what, 40-50 pixels to work with??
    Great work. Cant wait for the flyby!


  • #65
    shedweller
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭shedweller


    I'm just amazed they got that detail out of those four raw images! There's what, 40-50 pixels to work with??
    Great work. Cant wait for the flyby!


  • #66
    mg1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭mg1982


    When can we expect to get up close and personal with Pluto?


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  • #67
    rolion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,362 ✭✭✭rolion


    Big accomplishment for human kind !

    The first thought that came in my mind is we are really struggling to discover about our solar system's 9 planets while in Star Trek they are walking across galaxies... Big Q is: when ?


  • #68
    namloc1980
    Registered Users Posts: 18,064 ✭✭✭✭namloc1980


    mg1982 wrote: »
    When can we expect to get up close and personal with Pluto?

    Closest approach and flyby of Pluto will be 14th July 2015. Two and a half months to go!!!


  • #69
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    namloc1980 wrote: »
    Closest approach and flyby of Pluto will be 14th July 2015. Two and a half months to go!!!

    But it will take months more to download the images. The connection is slower than dialup over a 20 mile Eircom line.


  • #70
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,684 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Zubeneschamali wrote: »
    But it will take months more to download the images. The connection is slower than dialup over a 20 mile Eircom line.
    http://www.geek.com/science/new-horizons-probe-has-a-1-kilobit-per-second-data-connection-from-pluto-1614967/

    1Kb/s :eek:
    Its optical camera, known as the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) takes 1024 x 1024 resolution images, each of which are 2.5 megabits (0.3125 megabytes) uncompressed. To send that one image back to Earth takes 42 minutes. And you thought your Comcast connection was slow.
    ...
    The biggest bottleneck, though, is the fact that New Horizons can’t send data back to Earth all day every day. There’s a lot of competition for time on the Deep Space Network’s three 70-meter dishes, and the New Horizons team is lucky to get one 8-hour session per day. Additionally, New Horizons can’t acquire new data and send data back at the same time. It’s one or the other.

    Yes the images will be compressed so it won't be all that bad


  • #71
    Maximus Alexander
    Registered Users Posts: 13,080 ✭✭✭✭Maximus Alexander


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    http://www.geek.com/science/new-horizons-probe-has-a-1-kilobit-per-second-data-connection-from-pluto-1614967/

    1Kb/s :eek:



    Yes the images will be compressed so it won't be all that bad

    They need to get the Deep Space Network out of the 90s and upgrade it to fibre. :pac:


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  • #72
    mg1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭mg1982


    Are you telling me they dont have broadband on pluto? What have they been doing on that planet the last millennia.


  • #73
    Curly Judge
    Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    Rubecula wrote: »
    From that Pluto looks either misshapen or a funny colour in places.

    I agree.... it looks to have a protrusion on the side opposite Charon.
    It could be an illusion caused by the snow caps (if that's what they are)?
    Or is could be a collided satellite or asteroid that hasn't yet been absorbed and
    assimilated by Pluto's gravity.
    We should know more by mid month when the next new photos are scheduled.
    Plutos end of its reciprocal (or dumbbell) orbit with Charon seems somewhat "jerky", which is what might be expected from an off balance sphere.
    Again it could just be a photographic effect caused by the crude pixelation.
    One way or the other we have exciting days ahead!


  • #74
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    I read it was even slower ... like 0.25 KB sec ... so even though it's a quick flyby it will feel like an orbital mission cos it will take over a year to get all the photo data ..


  • #75
    rolion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,362 ✭✭✭rolion


    What is very interesting in the attached here link is the level of "knowledge" today to process a black and white no-sense image in the most left side and get so many results, as in the two pictures right side !

    nh-styx-kerberos-loop-larger.gif

    PS
    while searching for info, i got a 404 page not found...very funny :)

    348722.jpg


  • #76
    Brancott
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 68 ✭✭Brancott


    nh-stern_7.gif?itok=BmdqnCDl


  • #77
    Brancott
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 68 ✭✭Brancott


    NASA’s New Horizons Detects Surface Features, Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

    http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-detects-surface-features-possible-polar-cap-on-pluto


  • #78
    shedweller
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭shedweller


    This just keeps getting better!


  • #79
    Curly Judge
    Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    Brancott wrote: »
    NASA’s New Horizons Detects Surface Features, Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

    http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-detects-surface-features-possible-polar-cap-on-pluto

    Pluto is beginning to look like the most misshapen planet in the solar system.
    (I know, I know, but I still think of it as a planet)
    Could be that it's an amalgam of smaller Kuiper Belt objects that hasn't had the required aeons to form itself into the classic spherical shape?
    If so, its research potential as a planetary kindergarten will be enormous.


  • #80
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,684 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Curly Judge wrote: »
    Pluto is beginning to look like the most misshapen planet in the solar system.
    (I know, I know, but I still think of it as a planet)
    Could be that it's an amalgam of smaller Kuiper Belt objects that hasn't had the required aeons to form itself into the classic spherical shape?
    If so, its research potential as a planetary kindergarten will be enormous.
    It's not the Roche limit but what's the thing where gravity makes things circular because they aren't strong enough to stand up to their own weight ?

    more coffee needed

    well anyway Pluto would be very cold and things like Ice would be rock hard so less deformation. or it could be that it just hasn't had time to collapse yet.


  • #81
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    well anyway Pluto would be very cold and things like Ice would be rock hard so less deformation. or it could be that it just hasn't had time to collapse yet.

    Pluto is a sphere, guys, it's just patchy.


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  • #82
    Curly Judge
    Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    Zubeneschamali wrote: »
    Pluto is a sphere, guys, it's just patchy.

    You may well be right... but I hope you're wrong.:)


  • #83
    Maximus Alexander
    Registered Users Posts: 13,080 ✭✭✭✭Maximus Alexander


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    It's not the Roche limit but what's the thing where gravity makes things circular because they aren't strong enough to stand up to their own weight ?

    more coffee needed

    well anyway Pluto would be very cold and things like Ice would be rock hard so less deformation. or it could be that it just hasn't had time to collapse yet.

    Hydrostatic equilibrium. It's one of the defining characteristics of a dwarf planet though, so Pluto has to be some sort of oblate spheroid or it will be in for a further downgrade.


  • #84
    shedweller
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,029 ✭✭✭shedweller


    Maximus Alexander wrote: »
    Hydrostatic equilibrium. It's one of the defining characteristics of a dwarf planet though, so Pluto has to be some sort of oblate spheroid or it will be in for a further downgrade.
    Oblate spheroid ya say! Time to step back from the coffee!
    It does look lumpy as hell though. Maybe its just a camera exposure thing. More pics needed!


  • #85
    namloc1980
    Registered Users Posts: 18,064 ✭✭✭✭namloc1980


    shedweller wrote: »
    Oblate spheroid ya say! Time to step back from the coffee!
    It does look lumpy as hell though. Maybe its just a camera exposure thing. More pics needed!

    It's still 55,000,000 kilometres from Pluto. Too early to say if it is indeed an odd shape or just a camera exposure and resolution effect. Pluto is pretty small so it's still little more than a speck to the spacecraft:

    18222407775_c248575078_o.png


  • #86
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    namloc1980 wrote: »
    It's still 55,000,000 kilometres from Pluto. Too early to say if it is indeed an odd shape

    Pluto is much larger than Ceres, and Ceres is already big enough to be spherical. We knew from Hubble that Pluto was patchy.


  • #87
    Curly Judge
    Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    Zubeneschamali wrote: »
    Pluto is much larger than Ceres, and Ceres is already big enough to be spherical. We knew from Hubble that Pluto was patchy.

    Patchy ...but not lumpy.


  • #88
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    Curly Judge wrote: »
    Patchy ...but not lumpy.

    That's because it IS patchy, but not lumpy.


  • #89
    Curly Judge
    Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    Zubeneschamali wrote: »
    That's because it IS patchy, but not lumpy.

    We'll talk again in the middle of June....by which time it should be resolved, one way or the other.


  • #90
    mg1982
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,772 ✭✭✭mg1982


    July 14 is when it arrives at pluto.


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  • #91
    Curly Judge
    Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    mg1982 wrote: »
    July 14 is when it arrives at pluto.

    Yes ...but by the middle of June it will be approx 36 million K from Pluto and near enough for the cameras to resolve our "Lumpy" dispute.


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