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Space and Astronomy Thread
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glitterlady08
11-07-2015
Jupiter and Venus last week. Soo close... I wish I had telescope person handy.. Mr g he was in bed..

It was so lovely...
CLL Dodge
11-07-2015
Getting even closer to Pluto:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33491454
glitterlady08
11-07-2015
[quote=glitterlady08;78908322]Jupiter and Venus last week. Soo close... I wish I had telescope person handy.. Mr g he was in bed..

It was so lovely... [/QUO

JUPITER IN LEO ..... Almost coming to the end...
Eddie Badger
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by CLL Dodge:
“Getting even closer to Pluto:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33491454”

Is it just me or does that band of "patterned terrain" look like a row of craters?
Can't wait to see Pluto in greater detail.
Kapellmeister
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by Eddie Badger:
“Is it just me or does that band of "patterned terrain" look like a row of craters?
Can't wait to see Pluto in greater detail.”

I agree, but then they could be something else entirely. The surface looks covered in these roundish features so maybe it'll have a similar terrain to somewhere like Mercury.
Keyser_Soze1
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by Kapellmeister:
“I agree, but then they could be something else entirely. The surface looks covered in these roundish features so maybe it'll have a similar terrain to somewhere like Mercury.”

This week is going to be simply incredible.

An example of what Humanity is truly capable of when on a quest for scientific knowledge.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....-jupiter-pics/
Eddie Badger
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by Keyser_Soze1:
“This week is going to be simply incredible.

An example of what Humanity is truly capable of when on a quest for scientific knowledge.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....-jupiter-pics/”

I'm like a four year old waiting for Christmas I think we're going to be in for a lot of surprises from Pluto.
Keyser_Soze1
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by Eddie Badger:
“I'm like a four year old waiting for Christmas I think we're going to be in for a lot of surprises from Pluto.”

This thread will go insane!

Rather sad to think that this (I think) will be the last mission to the outer solar system for many years.

I remember watching the images from Voyager 2 as a kid.

Awesome stuff.
tiger2000
11-07-2015
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....pacific-ocean/
tiger2000
12-07-2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33496883
CLL Dodge
12-07-2015
Originally Posted by tiger2000:
“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33496883”

"The vast distance to Pluto - some 4.7bn km - means bit rates are extremely slow, and it will take a full 16 months for everything seen in the next few days to trickle back to Earth."

Still a while to wait then.
TelevisionUser
12-07-2015
Originally Posted by Keyser_Soze1:
“This thread will go insane!

Rather sad to think that this (I think) will be the last mission to the outer solar system for many years.

I remember watching the images from Voyager 2 as a kid.

Awesome stuff. ”

However, the good news is that it's not the end of the New Horizons probe. The Hubble Space Telescope has been used to identify two promising small, icy worldlets (less than 100km diameter), KBO PT1 and KBO PT3, and New Horizons can reach either (but not both) with a small course correction leading to a rendezvous in 2018-2019.

Linklet: Emily Lakdawalla’s Pluto Preview

Originally Posted by tiger2000:
“http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....pacific-ocean/”

That is quite fortuitous and the results of that airborne telescope analyis will complement the data coming in from New Horizons so an even more complete understanding of Pluto will be obtained.

Originally Posted by tiger2000:
“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33496883”

Yes, and the terrain at the top of that picture resembles the surface of that other Kuiper Belt Object, Neptune's captured satellite Triton - links below:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA00340.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt#Triton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_%28moon%29
Keyser_Soze1
12-07-2015
Originally Posted by TelevisionUser:
“However, the good news is that it's not the end of the New Horizons probe. The Hubble Space Telescope has been used to identify two promising small, icy worldlets (less than 100km diameter), KBO PT1 and KBO PT3, and New Horizons can reach either (but not both) with a small course correction leading to a rendezvous in 2018-2019.

Linklet: Emily Lakdawalla’s Pluto Preview



That is quite fortuitous and the results of that airborne telescope analyis will complement the data coming in from New Horizons so an even more complete understanding of Pluto will be obtained.

Yes, and the terrain at the top of that picture resembles the surface of that other Kuiper Belt Object, Neptune's captured satellite Triton - links below:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA00340.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt#Triton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_%28moon%29
”

Yes - I am very glad that they have been able to identify some more viable Kuiper belt objects for New Horizons to visit.

Still hoping against hope for a huge Black Monolith to be discovered one day though.
simongvs70
13-07-2015
If neither the Voyager nor Galileo probes found anything like a Monolith at Jupiter, I don't know how you would expect New Horizons to find one at Pluto! (Unless there was a second Monolith found there in the 2061/ 3001 Odyssey books that I've forgotten about!)
I'm still hoping that NH will in fact discover Charon to be a Mass Relay...
TelevisionUser
13-07-2015
Originally Posted by Keyser_Soze1:
“Yes - I am very glad that they have been able to identify some more viable Kuiper belt objects for New Horizons to visit.”

Unfortunately, dwarf planet Eris is nowhere near Pluto so there's zero chance of visiting that far flung world at the present time. However, we can still do things with light as this article shows here http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....pacific-ocean/ and so future stellar occultations of Eris could yield some new scientific information.

Reflected sunlight measured in the infrared spectrum has already provided some interesting results because surface composition data can be obtained. If we look at the infrared spectra for Triton and Pluto http://cdn.iopscience.com/images/000...28159f5_lr.jpg and Pluto and Eris https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...pectrum_pt.PNG, we can see that they're very similar to each other in apparent surface composition and they might also have similar internal structures too as this ilustration shows: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/wp-co..._interiors.jpg

In other dwarf world news, it appears that the bright crustal spots on Ceres might be due to salt deposition from water (geysir?) evaporation or direct ice sublimation: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s...ice-after-all/
atg
15-07-2015
Well, everybody can breathe again because New Horizons checked in as expected at about 2am this morning, alive and well and with a full set of data on board. How soon do we get to see the first close-ups?
Kapellmeister
15-07-2015
Originally Posted by atg:
“Well, everybody can breathe again because New Horizons checked in as expected at about 2am this morning, alive and well and with a full set of data on board. How soon do we get to see the first close-ups?”

Something will probably be revealed at today's press conference, which is scheduled for 8pm UK time. It'll be live on NASA TV.
njp
15-07-2015
Originally Posted by atg:
“Well, everybody can breathe again because New Horizons checked in as expected at about 2am this morning, alive and well and with a full set of data on board. How soon do we get to see the first close-ups?”

I was wondering about that. Apparently the bitrate is so low that it will take 16 months to retrieve all the data. I would imagine there is some kind of prioritisation scheme, so that the data expected to be most valuable is sent first. It would be terrible if the probe failed before it had got to the best stuff!
Kapellmeister
15-07-2015
Originally Posted by njp:
“I was wondering about that. Apparently the bitrate is so low that it will take 16 months to retrieve all the data. I would imagine there is some kind of prioritisation scheme, so that the data expected to be most valuable is sent first. It would be terrible if the probe failed before it had got to the best stuff!”

Yes, the most significant material has been prioritised and is expected to be back on Earth by the beginning of August.
jzee
15-07-2015
The first images

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/fr...-pluto-mission
Rich Tea.
16-07-2015
One question having seen the ice mountains on Pluto appearing to cast shadows in the new image. How is that possible? The Sun is surely so far away that there cannot be any chance of it casting shadows on Pluto, or am I wrong?
njp
16-07-2015
Originally Posted by Rich Tea.:
“One question having seen the ice mountains on Pluto appearing to cast shadows in the new image. How is that possible? The Sun is surely so far away that there cannot be any chance of it casting shadows on Pluto, or am I wrong?”

You are wrong. As long as there is a source of light, it can cast shadows. We are only able to see images from the New Horizons probe because of the sunlight reflected by the surface of Pluto. Its cameras are of course designed to cope with the anticipated light levels. They can even capture images from Pluto's darkside, using just Charon's moonshine.

The Sun seen from Pluto would be tiny, but still far brighter than anything else in the Sky, and it would deliver more light than we get on Earth from a full moon.
Kapellmeister
16-07-2015
Originally Posted by Rich Tea.:
“One question having seen the ice mountains on Pluto appearing to cast shadows in the new image. How is that possible? The Sun is surely so far away that there cannot be any chance of it casting shadows on Pluto, or am I wrong?”

Someone posted this link on another thread:

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

Input your location and it'll tell you when on Earth it will be as bright as it is on Pluto at noon.

I tried it and it said that noon on Pluto would appear to be as bright as just before 10pm where I live (which is further south than the UK and so it stays brighter longer).
atg
16-07-2015
The planet Venus is bright enough to cast shadows on Earth. It's quite difficult to demonstrate, but I have seen images of it. The Sun is much brighter in Pluto's sky.
Eddie Badger
16-07-2015
I found this the other day, it shows which space probes are currently talking to NASA's ground stations http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html New Horizons has been busy sending stuff all day at a whopping 2.11kb/sec
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