Updates NASA New Horizons Mission Updates

[Spacethingy]

I love the way you can see the seriously displaced barycentre in that .gif!

Yeah Artlav... It really doesn't seem like a very long time ago I was a whiny kid moaning "awww.... 2015.... that's like THOUSANDS are years away...". :lol:

 

[Andy44]

Awesome, getting close enough to start seeing surface features. This is history happening now, fellow orbinauts!

Since my name is one of the 430,000 or so names on the CD-ROM carried aboard the spacecraft, I've made a point of paying attention to this.

(This could be good or bad...when aliens find the vehicle they may track down and either reward or exterminate my living relatives someday.)

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32724092

The New Horizons probe, heading for its historic flyby of Pluto in July, has now caught sight of all the known faint moons of the dwarf planet.

 

[Notebook]

Just for info:

Pluto Safari is an interactive guide to the first mission to Pluto. Powered by SkySafari 4 its an app for Adroid an iOS.

Put it on my Samsung thing and its working fine. Found out about it via the Starry Night newsletter, worth a search if you fancy.

Edit:
Simulation Curriculim are the mob that do it.
http://app.plutosafari.com/
N.

 

[statickid]

Back in the beginning of this year, probably January or something, there was some statement that said the real interesting data would start to come in late May. Really the flyby itself is almost like the middle/end of the event. I had a days-until countdown on my phone that went off a couple days ago. Now they are releasing these pictures from a couple weeks ago! It only gets better from here! HERE WE GO!!

:woohoo:

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-sees-more-detail-as-it-draws-closer-to-pluto

 

[Notebook]

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150528

So Far, All Clear: New Horizons Team Completes First Search for Pluto System Hazards

 

[Unstung]

​

I don't think rings are a concern anymore.

 

[MattBaker]

Well, it would have discovered us having more than one moon...

 

[fraxudemspas]

NASA’s Hubble Finds Pluto’s Moons Tumbling in Absolute Chaos

“Hubble has provided a new view of Pluto and its moons revealing a cosmic dance with a chaotic rhythm,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “When the New Horizons spacecraft flies through the Pluto system in July we’ll get a chance to see what these moons look like up close and personal.”

The moons wobble because they’re embedded in a gravitational field that shifts constantly. This shift is created by the double planet system of Pluto and Charon as they whirl about each other. Pluto and Charon are called a double planet because they share a common center of gravity located in the space between the bodies. Their variable gravitational field sends the smaller moons tumbling erratically. The effect is strengthened by the football-like, rather than spherical, shape of the moons. Scientists believe it’s likely Pluto’s other two moons, Kerberos and Styx, are in a similar situation.

 

[Kyle]

So, they're like Hyperion? Interesting!

 

[Marg]

I'm waiting very impatiently for this encounter...

 

[Ravenous]

Agreed, I keep thinking "Are we nearly there yet"...

Just to keep us interested, I saw this thing the other day - a timetable of expected results and a "fake" poster to demonstrate what sort of quality to expect:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/03101637-pluto-image-expectations.html

 

[Notebook]

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime/

Novel, I think...?

N

 

[Artlav]

I think it's broken.
Gives me a time around 16:50, when it's bright, bright daylight out.

 

[Andy44]

To get your imagination a kick with some Pluto-related sci fi, I recommend Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Also, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, although Pluto is not quite central to the story.

 

[Kyle]

To get your imagination a kick with some Pluto-related sci fi, I recommend Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Also, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, although Pluto is not quite central to the story.

The plot of the "Mass Effect" game series is jump started in part by the discovery that Charon's an ancient alien spaceship called a "Mass Relay". Thought that was cool!

 

[Traveller]

There's also "Wait It Out", a short story by Larry Niven in the book, Tales of Known Space.

 

[llarian]

Go back a little farther: E.E. Smith's Lensmen series.

 

[Artlav]

Speaking of Niven, World Of Ptavvs also feature quite a bit of Pluto.

 

[fsci123]

Different Faces of Pluto Emerging in New Images from New Horizons

The surface of Pluto is becoming better resolved as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft speeds closer to its July flight through the Pluto system.

A series of new images obtained by the spacecraft’s telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) during May 29-June 2 show Pluto is a complex world with very bright and very dark terrain, and areas of intermediate brightness in between. These images afford the best views ever obtained of the Pluto system.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/different-faces-of-pluto-emerging-in-new-images-from-new-horizons