Anyone else following New Horizons?
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Am I the only space nerd on this forum? New Horizons is scheduled for a flyby of Pluto on July 14th. NASA has been releasing photos of the dwarf plant daily. It's pretty crazy how long we've known about Pluto yet until now had no real idea what it would look like. Its moon is almost the size of the dwarf planet.
I, for one, and pretty stoked.
I, for one, and pretty stoked.
I was gonna feel bad about going out and getting drunk instead, but it seems I can do both since this isn't until the 14th
Yep.
I am a nerd for deep ocean and space exploration. Shark Week and this got me too hyped this week.
The fact that we shot this probe 9 years ago to an object that is half the size of our moon....and about to receive hi res images literally blows the fuck out of my mind.
like
how
If you actually sit and think about it it's crazy
I am a nerd for deep ocean and space exploration. Shark Week and this got me too hyped this week.
The fact that we shot this probe 9 years ago to an object that is half the size of our moon....and about to receive hi res images literally blows the fuck out of my mind.
like
how
If you actually sit and think about it it's crazy
I agree it's mind blowing. Especially when you think about distances and speed.
A quick read on how difficult just communicating with the probe is.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/01300800-talking-to-pluto-is-hard.html
There was a glitch like a week ago that took days to fix and could have cost the entire mission
A quick read on how difficult just communicating with the probe is.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/01300800-talking-to-pluto-is-hard.html
There was a glitch like a week ago that took days to fix and could have cost the entire mission
http://eyes.nasa.gov/eyes-on-pluto.html
Just downloaded it and launched it. Amazing stuff.
Using Eyes on the Solar System and simulated data from the New Horizons flight team you can ride onboard the spacecraft using “Eyes on Pluto” on your Mac or PC.
The picture in picture view shows you where the spacecraft is looking and what its advanced instruments can see. You can use a “live” mode to see what New Horizons is doing right now, or preview the flyby of the Pluto System. The spacecraft will be busiest during the time of closest approach between July 13th and 15th 2015 where you will see the spacecraft turn from target to target as it flies past Pluto at over 30,000 miles per hour. Click launch to get started, or use the “tours and features” button from inside Eyes on the Solar System.
Just downloaded it and launched it. Amazing stuff.
By Prototype Viktor Go To PostCall me when we land on Io or Europa lol
They're testing systems and tools for it now
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/europa/newsdisplay.cfm?Subsite_News_ID=38112&SiteID=4
NASA has selected nine science instruments for a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, to investigate whether the mysterious icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.
NASA’s Galileo mission yielded strong evidence that Europa, about the size of Earth’s moon, has an ocean beneath a frozen crust of unknown thickness. If proven to exist, this global ocean could have more than twice as much water as Earth. With abundant salt water, a rocky sea floor, and the energy and chemistry provided by tidal heating, Europa could be the best place in the solar system to look for present day life beyond our home planet.
Including this untethered rover which attaches itself to the underside of the ice and rolls along with a camera looking for shit. Successfully tested it in the Alaskan ice
https://youtu.be/sY5WQG3-3mo
NASA is a beast
I'm still amazed that the blue planet is actually yellow. We should be getting the pictures from the fly by in about 10 hours, right?
And that ice diving robot is so clever.
And that ice diving robot is so clever.
By Nelo Ice Go To PostI love space.
crazy.
i find the gas giants and venus to be the most fascinating. neptune might have oceans of diamonds and shit with the way the pressure interacts with the methane.
Scientist twitter Q&A regarding pluto:
Apparently the heart is also a snow from a gas like methane or carbon monoxide. Cool stuff.
How did you guys predict where Pluto would be when you sent @NASANewHorizons to space, since we and pluto are always in motion?
We kept taking pictures of it from the s/c and adjusting the orbit as needed. Kinda neat uh?
When will we receive more detailed imagery? #PlutoFlyby #Pluto @NASANewHorizons
Late tonight it will start coming in. When we are all in bed asleep since in the AM we will be back to look at them
any pictures of the smaller moons available yet?
Yes. we've resolved the big ones, just a couple of pixels. It does show us that they are football shaped.. JimGreen
what can we reasonably learn from our fly-into the Kuiper belt? I would imagine most of the real data would require regolith….?
KBos have only been observed remotely through telescopes as points of light. KBOs are relics from the earliest times of solar system formation, born at the edge of our solar system's planetary disk. We have never been up close to one before Pluto. - Carey
Are we going to land on the Pluto someday ? Have we missed opportunity to do this now ?
Only if we can come up with a compelling scientific reason to do so. JimGreen
What are the chances of New Horizons lasting as long as the Voyagers have?
Its radioactive power supply will last into the 2030s. Then it will be too cold for the s/c to operateJimGreen
Why do you think Charon has more craters than Pluto?
One possibility is that Charon has no atmosphere to freeze out and cover up craters with surface ices. - Carey
Apparently the heart is also a snow from a gas like methane or carbon monoxide. Cool stuff.
4.5 hours to receive a communication from our probe, and it's doing all of the observations and measurements on auto-pilot. This is so amazing.
If I were a programmer for that project I could die tomorrow and I'd still be happy.
If I were a programmer for that project I could die tomorrow and I'd still be happy.
Plutots moon
Plutot's "youthful" mountains. I wonder how they formed if scientists figure they're young. The planet can't be seismically active can it? I would imagine its too cold.
EDIT: Scientists postulating that the planet still has a radioactive core. Otherwise everyone is pretty blown away Pluto has mountains.
Plutot's "youthful" mountains. I wonder how they formed if scientists figure they're young. The planet can't be seismically active can it? I would imagine its too cold.
EDIT: Scientists postulating that the planet still has a radioactive core. Otherwise everyone is pretty blown away Pluto has mountains.
Supposed to be a press conference in about 15 minutes. (1 PM eastern).
Scientists fainting and crying over what they found. I'm betting geologically active with warm water under the surface or some shit. Crazy how we thought this would be a dead object.
Nerd levels reaching maximum
Scientists fainting and crying over what they found. I'm betting geologically active with warm water under the surface or some shit. Crazy how we thought this would be a dead object.
Nerd levels reaching maximum
Shamelessly stolen from GAF which was shamelessly stolen from NASA :)
The new close-up images show fascinating detail within the Texas-sized plain (informally named Sputnik Planum) that lies within the western half of Pluto’s heart-shaped region, known as Tombaugh Regio. There, a sheet of ice clearly appears to have flowed—and may still be flowing—in a manner similar to glaciers on Earth.
Additionally, new compositional data from New Horizons’ Ralph instrument indicate that the center of Sputnik Planum is rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices. “At Pluto’s temperatures of minus-390 degrees Fahrenheit, these ices can flow like a glacier,” said Bill McKinnon, of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team. In the southernmost region of the heart, adjacent to the dark equatorial region, it appears that ancient, heavily-cratered terrain (informally named “Cthulhu Regio”) has been invaded by much newer icy deposits.
The new close-up images show fascinating detail within the Texas-sized plain (informally named Sputnik Planum) that lies within the western half of Pluto’s heart-shaped region, known as Tombaugh Regio. There, a sheet of ice clearly appears to have flowed—and may still be flowing—in a manner similar to glaciers on Earth.
Additionally, new compositional data from New Horizons’ Ralph instrument indicate that the center of Sputnik Planum is rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices. “At Pluto’s temperatures of minus-390 degrees Fahrenheit, these ices can flow like a glacier,” said Bill McKinnon, of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team. In the southernmost region of the heart, adjacent to the dark equatorial region, it appears that ancient, heavily-cratered terrain (informally named “Cthulhu Regio”) has been invaded by much newer icy deposits.
