Eye's on the New Horizons and the Kuiper Belt

[rockytopva]

Another view of Pluto / Charon at just over 1 AU... That going to be one tough needle to thread!

 

[Shemjaza]

Another view of Pluto / Charon at just over 1 AU... That going to be one tough needle to thread!

Is the flight path really between both bodies?


Hmm, looks like they got a good shot of Charon:

 

[AceHero]

I just want someone to land a probe on Ceres... The Dwarf Planets and Moons of our solar system simply seem much more interesting than the 'real' planets. At least when it comes to practical research that could let us advance our presence in the Solar System.

Ceres will be fascinating since we've known about it for so long, and various moons of the gas giants are thought to have subsurface oceans, which make them candidates for potential life.

 

[AceHero]

As Laurele pointed out in her threads, refusing to call Pluto a planet for fear of having to name all these other things planets doesn't wash.

After all, there are now over 100 elements in the Periodic Table, and you don't see anyone complaining about that.

Which is fine with me if they don't want to call them planets or not, but Pluto is orbiting the sun and has a moon of it's own, besides the long tradition of calling it a planet. But I also understand some dividing line has to be drawn, else every asteroid big enough would have to be thoroughly checked out just to decide if it's an asteroid or a planet.

True, but the PT doesn't list all the different types (sizes for planets) of steel for example.

So I can see it both ways, but still think Pluto will always be thought of as a planet.

What makes Pluto (and Ceres, and Eris, etc.) not planets is the fact that they don't clear their own neighborhoods:

The phrase refers to an orbiting body (a planet or protoplanet) "sweeping out" its orbital region over time, by gravitationally interacting with smaller bodies nearby. Over many orbital cycles, a large body will tend to cause small bodies either to accrete with it, or to be disturbed to another orbit, or to be captured either as a satellite or into a resonant orbit. As a consequence it does not then share its orbital region with other bodies of significant size, except for its own satellites, or other bodies governed by its own gravitational influence. This latter restriction excludes objects whose orbits may cross but which will never collide with each other due to orbital resonance, such as Jupiter and the Trojan asteroids, Earth and 3753 Cruithne, or Neptune and the plutinos.[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_the_neighbourhood#cite_note-Stern_2002-2

Clearing the neighbourhood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[AceHero]

Which is fine with me if they don't want to call them planets or not,

I would say most do want to call it a planet though.

Only a handful of scientists rigged a vote behind closed doors.

Many planetary scientists objected to the declassification.

My guess is that this is not consensus of opinion.

It wasn't quite that extreme:

The final vote has come under much criticism because of the relatively small percentage of the 9000-strong membership who participated. Besides the fact that most members do not attend the General Assemblies, this lack was also due to the timing of the vote: the final vote was taken on the last day of the 10-day event, after many participants had left or were preparing to leave. The claim is that only 424 astronomers were present for the vote, which is less than 5% of the entire community of astronomers.[43] However, sampling 400 representative members out of a population of 9,000 statistically yields a result with good accuracy (confidence interval better than 5%).[46] There is also the issue of the many astronomers who were unable or who chose not to make the trip to Prague and, thus, cast no vote. Astronomer Marla Geha has clarified that not all members of the Union were needed to vote on the classification issue: only those whose work is directly related to planetary studies.[47]

IAU definition of planet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[essentialsaltes]

New Horizons spots Hydra and Nix

(It has also been a lifelong personal goal to post something before rockytopva posts it.)

 

[rockytopva]

New Horizons spots Hydra and Nix

(It has also been a lifelong personal goal to post something before rockytopva posts it.)

I have been following this mission for a long time. I was tuned into the NASA channel during the launch. This is the most exciting thing NASA has going in 2015 as far as I am concerned.

 

[rockytopva]

My gosh! Look at the field of stars behind Pluto! That is the star rich region of the Milky Way in the constellation Sagittarius. They should have plenty of stars to navigate by! Speaking of which I cannot imagine the mathematics involved in making such a maneuver between Pluto and her moons to capture as much as you can during the encounter.

 

[rockytopva]

Within 1 AU... It is show time!

 

[SkyWriting]

I have been eying the New Horizon mission (New Horizons Web Site) ever since it launched in 2006. Too bad it could not set its path to 'Xena' after it explores Pluto!

We've already got some good pics

 

[rockytopva]

I can only imagine the math involved in planning the Pluto fly by. If the math is not correct they could end up slamming into a moon or just photographing outer space.

With Trajectory Correction, NASA’s New Horizons Homes in on Pluto[

A 93-second thruster burst today slightly adjusted the New Horizons spacecraft’s trajectory toward Pluto.
This was the first maneuver of New Horizons’ approach phase to Pluto; it was planned to slow the spacecraft’s velocity by just 1.14 meters per second – barely a tap on the brakes for a probe moving about 14.5 kilometers per second – and moved its July 14 arrival time back on schedule with a change from the pre-burn course of 14 minutes and 30 seconds. It will also shift the course “sideways” (if looking from Earth) by 3,442 kilometers (2,139 miles) by July 14, sending the spacecraft toward a desired flyby close-approach target point. The shift was based on the latest orbit predictions of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, estimated from various sources, including optical-navigation images of the Pluto system taken by New Horizons in January and February.

 

[mzungu]

I can only imagine the math involved in planning the Pluto fly by. If the math is not correct they could end up slamming into a moon or just photographing outer space.

With Trajectory Correction, NASA’s New Horizons Homes in on Pluto[

A 93-second thruster burst today slightly adjusted the New Horizons spacecraft’s trajectory toward Pluto.
This was the first maneuver of New Horizons’ approach phase to Pluto; it was planned to slow the spacecraft’s velocity by just 1.14 meters per second – barely a tap on the brakes for a probe moving about 14.5 kilometers per second – and moved its July 14 arrival time back on schedule with a change from the pre-burn course of 14 minutes and 30 seconds. It will also shift the course “sideways” (if looking from Earth) by 3,442 kilometers (2,139 miles) by July 14, sending the spacecraft toward a desired flyby close-approach target point. The shift was based on the latest orbit predictions of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, estimated from various sources, including optical-navigation images of the Pluto system taken by New Horizons in January and February.

Curiosity, Dawn, New Horizons are but a few that have boldly gone where no man has gone before. Every space mission is well worth the effort and money.

 

[rockytopva]

Less that 0.9 AU's out. We are still 40 days from better than Hubble. It looks like the scientists are working on the program that will take the space probe through the eye of the Pluto system needle. I cannot imagine the mathematics involved in such a mission that far away! The July 14, 2015 showdown!

 

[rockytopva]

Does anyone notice that the time ticks get shorter after the Pluto encounter? Some kind of gravity assist no doubt? It looks like we have 60 ten minute trajectory time ticks. It will only take 1/2 of a day for New Horizons to pass through the area displayed below.

God please let me live to see the Pluto system encounter!

 

[essentialsaltes]

Closest approach of 12,500 km to Pluto. That's about a third the distance from the Earth's surface to a geosynchronous satellite.

Interesting that both Pluto and Charon will block (occult) the spacecraft from our view (and also pass into the Sun-shadows cast by them). That's quite a billiard shot they lined up.

 

[rockytopva]

Should be an exciting April as we should have colored images of Pluto mid-April. I am thinking that April will consist of imaging Pluto and the Milky Way stars behind it for navigational purposes.

April 2015 - Approach Phase 2 begins
April 5, 2015 - 100 days until Pluto close approach (P-100)
April 9, 2015 - Color approach imaging of Pluto system begins

Weaver said New Horizons will also take background measurements of the particle and dust environment during Approach Phase 1, which runs through mid-April, to compare with data it collects at Pluto.
“As we move from later in April and into mid-June, that’s the time period where we start to get better than Hubble,” said Hal Weaver, the mission’s project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “We’ll also be doing deep searches for satellites (moons) and rings better than can be done with Hubble or any other observatory on the Earth, and then it just gets better and better and better as we’re closer and closer to Pluto.


“During the time of closest approach, it’s going to be astounding,” Weaver said. “It really will be. We’re going to be transforming Pluto from this pixelated image … into a completely new world, with complexity (and) diversity that we can’t even imagine.”

 

[Strathos]

Closest approach of 12,500 km to Pluto. That's about a third the distance from the Earth's surface to a geosynchronous satellite.

Interesting that both Pluto and Charon will block (occult) the spacecraft from our view (and also pass into the Sun-shadows cast by them). That's quite a billiard shot they lined up.

I think you mean occlude, not occult. The probe isn't powered by voodoo magic.

 

[essentialsaltes]

I think you mean occlude, not occult. The probe isn't powered by voodoo magic.

Occultation is the astronomical term. You can see it on the image rocky posted.

And of course it is powered by voodoo. It's going to the underworld, er Pluto/Hades.

 

[rockytopva]

Update on the NASA channel tomorrow (4/14) at 1:00 and 3:30 PM EDT.

New Horizons

New Horizons should be at better than Hubble, so this will be an interesting update. Venus is 0.72 AU from the sun, which is about the same distance New Horizons is from Pluto. It should be getting interesting from here!

 

[rockytopva]

Ralph imager takes first colored photos of Pluto...

http://www.9news.com/story/news/loc...o-take-first-close-up-photos-of-pluto/2548358