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[Par Score]

What are the plans here? Is it going to orbit it for a bit or just do a single fly by? Where is it going after?

Fly-by. The speed differences are way too large for any kind of orbital insertion, if we wanted to orbit Pluto it would have taken much longer to get there, because the second half of the journey would have involved slowing down.

After Pluto, New Horizons is hoping to head off and look at some KBOs (Kuiper Belt Objects), but those suckers are hard to find, harder to track, and harder still to intercept. It's not for certain that it will even be attempted, because the funding might not be there for the team to continue with the project.

If not KBO hunting, or after any KBO encounters that might happen, it'll be off into interstellar space as the fifth human spacecraft to reach solar system escape velocity (Joining Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 as one of our very few messengers to the stars).

 

[Ray Wonder]

New image released today:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-a-heart-from-pluto-as-flyby-begins

Wow, I can't wait for the flyby.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I want to send a rover there.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Shit, we named it after the wrong dog...

CAN'T UNSEE.

 

[uncelestial]

It's amazing to be getting pictures from this far away. It takes 5.5 hours for light from the Sun to reach Pluto, and about 5.3 hours (depending on orbital positions) for light to get from Pluto to Earth.

Any commands we send to New Horizons require over 10 hours to even see results. It took 9 years for NH to reach Pluto and it was going pretty full-bore, never stopping to orbit any of the planets it flew by.

It's an exciting time. I wish I was born a little later so I could see more of our progress in my lifetime, but I'm taking what I can get. Now we just need to build the HDST telescope.

 

[Bregor]

Well damn. Atleast I now know why nobody has attempted it yet.

And also, it would be an insanely complex engineering job, which would require an advanced space faring race to build it. You cannot build a space elevator from the ground up, it has to be built from orbit downwards. So we have to have a permanent construction base in orbit, with industrial facilities at it, and lots of material delivered to it. Now consider that we just lost two rockets delivering modest amounts of supplies to a small space station in a much lower orbit.

I want a space elevator also, but we aren't ready yet. We probably won't be in this century.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Fly-by. The speed differences are way too large for any kind of orbital insertion, if we wanted to orbit Pluto it would have taken much longer to get there, because the second half of the journey would have involved slowing down.

After Pluto, New Horizons is hoping to head off and look at some KBOs (Kuiper Belt Objects), but those suckers are hard to find, harder to track, and harder still to intercept. It's not for certain that it will even be attempted, because the funding might not be there for the team to continue with the project.

If not KBO hunting, or after any KBO encounters that might happen, it'll be off into interstellar space as the fifth human spacecraft to reach solar system escape velocity (Joining Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 as one of our very few messengers to the stars).

Cool thanks. I forgot about the slowdown causing it way longer to reach the target. I forgot this thing is traveling at almost 60,000 KM/h and over 16 KM/s. That's mind boggling fast. Way too fast to start orbiting Pluto. Doh! I wonder how many pictures per second New Horizons can snap.


As for new methods of reaching space without using any fuel. I like the idea of the Startram.

http://m.phys.org/news/2012-03-maglev-track-spacecraft-orbit.html

 

[GK86]

NASA's New Horizons probe has officially begun to execute its sequence of Pluto flyby observations as it zooms toward its closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14.

As the probe nears Pluto, NASA TV will air daily updates from mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, at 11:30 a.m. ET (1530 GMT), through July 14.

So close.

 

[DieH@rd]

Hopefully we will get more pictures soon.

Spoiler

At the current distance New Horisons has 1kbit/s link toward Earth [at that speed, 1MB image will take more than 2hrs to be sent].

 

[sphinx]

go pluto go

 

[GK86]

go pluto go

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Pluto_Protest_and_Counter_Protest.jpg[/IM G][/QUOTE]

I have found my people.

 

[fallout]

I have found my people.

As someone who worked at an astronomical observatory during the frustrating period ... those shouldn't be your people.

 

[Shaldome]

Does anybody stop and think....how insane this is?

9 years and billions of miles out into space....

we managed to get something within figurative spitting distance and will be receiving high res pictures

bruh

I think what is even more mind blowing for me is the fact that they program it to take pictures of an object they cannot see while passing it at 60.000 km/h.

Seeing Pluto is great and I'm so glad I'm going to get to see it, but I'm really excited for when we get a probe to another solar system.

Voyager 1 is on it's way to another solar system but this takes a while

What are the plans here? Is it going to orbit it for a bit or just do a single fly by? Where is it going after?

I thought they already had three possible objects in the Kuiper belt objects as possible targets after Pluto.

 

[HTupolev]

I've always wondered, how exactly do you quantify "science"? Or at least in this context?

Volume of celebratory beer.

 

[GK86]

 

[leadbelly]

Great picture.

 

[titiklabingapat]

Wow.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

Beautiful.

 

[Banjotanooki]

Huh.

Always pictures Pluto to be blue. No idea why.

 

[Turnstile]

Beautiful.

Not many unexplored wonders left for us (in my lifetime), so it's impossible not to be in awe.

 

[Jibber Hack]

Beautiful.

Not many unexplored wonders left for us (in my lifetime), so it's impossible not to be in awe.

It's awesome, definitely, but there is plenty left to explore for generations to come.

 

[Volotaire]

Incredible.

 

[ivysaur12]

ooooooooooooh

 

[Sky Interloper]

What a gorgeous vista. It still blows my mind that Pluto is actually orange, because any materials about it always paint it with a bluish hue.

 

[rjinaz]

It's kind of crazy to think that we've known about pluto for nearly 100 years and we're just now seeing what it looks like, especially considering that it once was considered to be one of the 9 planets.

 

[Nokterian]

Amazing and completely stunted how it looks!

 

[Thaedolus]

LOL wer r the stars? nasa is a hox

 

[leadbelly]

You know, I just kind of want to see what space looks like from that distance. I think generally you need a long exposure to capture the stars in all their glory. I kind of wish there were more of those pictures.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

That moon looks huge in comparison to Pluto. Is that to scale?
The moon must be much closer to New Horizon.
Is Charon that big compared to Pluto?

 

[The Sum of Zero]

Huh.

Always pictures Pluto to be blue. No idea why.

Did you also picture the Sun as being red/orange or yellow?

But seriously, it's white.

 

[SkyOdin]

That moon looks huge in comparison to Pluto. Is that to scale?
The moon must be much closer to New Horizon.

Charon has a diamater just over half of Pluto's diameter, so it is in fact extremely large relative to its planet for a moon.

EDIT: Charon and Pluto are about 20,000km apart from each other (if I am reading Wikipedia right), and Charon has a diameter of 1,207 km, so a quick eyeball means that that might be a direct side-shot of the dwarf planet and it's largest moon. It is a very unusual system. They are close enough to each and close enough in size that they both orbit a point between the two objects, rather than Charon orbiting Pluto itself. There is a diagram of the orbit here.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Charon has a diamater just over half of Pluto's diameter, so it is in fact extremely large relative to its planet for a moon.

That's crazy!

 

[Nowy]

That moon looks huge in comparison to Pluto. Is that to scale?
The moon must be much closer to New Horizon.

The moon is called Charon, and its actually the largest moon relative to its parent object in our solar system. On the topic of moons: Our moon is actually bigger than Pluto.

 

[titiklabingapat]

That moon looks huge in comparison to Pluto. Is that to scale?
The moon must be much closer to New Horizon.
Is Charon that big compared to Pluto?

Yup,it actually is that big. Also, fun fact, the center of gravity of Pluto and Charon is actually outside of Pluto somewhere in the middle of both of them. Charon isn't really revolving around Pluto. They are both revolving around a point in between both of them.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Yup,it actually is that big. Also, fun fact, the center of gravity of Pluto and Charon is actually outside of Pluto somewhere in the middle of both of them. Charon isn't really revolving around Pluto. They are both revolving around a point in between both of them.

So Pluto wobbles?

That's cool though. Didn't know that.

 

[GK86]

I hope this image is accurate.

 

[titiklabingapat]

So Pluto wobbles?

That's cool though. Didn't know that.

Basically yeah.

Apparently this happens between Jupiter and the Sun as well.

 

[Nowy]

So Pluto wobbles?

That's cool though. Didn't know that.

Technically every object makes its parent object wobble. I think one of the ways scientists discover exoplanets is to measure the very very slight 'wobble' of stars.

 

[SkyOdin]

The moon is called Charon, and its actually the largest moon relative to its parent object in our solar system. On the topic of moons: Our moon is actually bigger than Pluto.

Looking at orbital measurements, Charon is crazy close to Pluto compared to the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The Moon is at most 384,399 km from Earth. Charon is at most 19,571 km from Pluto. Considering that the Moon has a diameter of about 3400 km, and Charon has a diameter of about 1200 km, Charon probably looks huge from the surface of Pluto. Both Pluto and Charon are tidally locked to each other too, so there is one place on Pluto where Charon is permanently fixed overhead. That must be something to see. Well I guess it isn't unlike how the Earth looks from the moon, but it is cool how it works both ways.

 

[Nozem]

Pluto? Who cares? It's not even a planet!

/ducks

 

[NateDog]

My goodness that picture is beautiful. Can't wait for the next few days, going to be amazing.

 

[hiryu2015]

The pic below is the first image of Pluto I remember seeing in astronomy books as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. Incredible.

 

[jkanownik]

I watched all 8 of the New Horizons one minute Pluto videos on Youtube today. Great way to catch up if you haven't been paying attential all along.

Pluto in a minute

 

[jett]

I have to say Pluto and Charon are much more spherical than I thought.

 

[Smokey]

The pic below is the first image of Pluto I remember seeing in astronomy books as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. Incredible.

1930

like

what in the fuk makes you say "hey...that little dot out of tens on this page....that shit's a planet"

in 1930

my mind is too gone brehs

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

you know, I'm looking at these comments thinking "hasn't pluto always been brown?" but the reality is I just didn't care (I think). I suppose I assumed it was white? But I've seen that Hubble picture for so long already (the yellow-dark brown one) I can't even remember what the depiction was before that.

I may have seen the 'blue' depiction as a kid though ('80s - '90s), when it was still assumed to be 'the next planet past Neptune', which happens to be blue.

Not that memory is reliable, but that just occurred to me for a bit.

 

[Backfoggen]

Mind-boggling to think how far away this picture was taken.

Just a couple of weeks ago all we had was this garbage:

 

[Himynameischris]

1930

like

what in the fuk makes you say "hey...that little dot out of tens on this page....that shit's a planet"

in 1930

my mind is too gone brehs

Babylonians knew about Venus around the second millennium BC...think about it.

 

[Jedi2016]

This is so cool. The next few weeks, as the pictures start coming back, are going to be very exciting.

 

[Ray Wonder]

1930

like

what in the fuk makes you say "hey...that little dot out of tens on this page....that shit's a planet"

in 1930

my mind is too gone brehs

Just the way it moves compared to the other dots. They've been doing this type of stuff since like 3rd century BC. Not as precise, but the idea is the same.

It's still mind blowing that they can do that.