Gerald If you look raw image data from satellites (which mostly is public you just need to know where to search) you will see that NASA actually heavily process there images to make them look prettier :p
Easily the most exciting mission IMO of this decade. Imagine all the things we will see. And the best part is that like the recent fly by of Mercury seen by Curiosity from Mars it will be a first. We are living these moments. These guys are right, a planet/dwarf whatever it will be named after more research, that is so small yet has so many moons, especially Charon. And Hubble's images brought even more questions to than answers. Funny thing, as a kid whenever i imagined Pluto for me it would be an icy world with thick ice storms and the like. And yet it's red. What secrets does it hold? Or it's moons? I cannot wait for next year to roll out. Super excited.
What the fuck, NASA just yesterday posted on FB about the radiation belts on their FB group. There are electrons in that belt that travel near to the speed of light. We're talking of MATTER here not EM waves... why do you think they're studying the belts... 40 yrs ago they had no problems in passing through them... right? Right... and I'm Cinderella.
I'm very excited for the for the Pluto flyby in July 2015. I've been interested in astronomy as a child back in 2006 and always wondered how Pluto would look like up close. I'm pretty sure this mission is going to reveal some mind-blowing facts about the Pluto system and a few KBOs.
For those of you hung up on the dwarf planet/planet discussion : Pluto has been (re)classified as a dwarf planet, but unless you are an astronomer it doesn't matter if you want to called it a planet or dwarf planet. Either way the big lump of rock is orbiting our star and doesn't give a shit about what we call it :D I'm more interested to see how Pluto looks like from a human perspective... would our eyes actually be able to see Pluto up close or is the amount of light reflected too dim for us to see?
aserta It's my opinion based on available data. FYI - nobody should ever take something at face value as "fact". Always look at the information yourself.
It would be wonderful to see life on Pluto. It would change a mission to Mars into a mission to Pluto. Have a safe trip New Horizons ! We are anxiously waiting for your eyes to take a look at Pluto and its moons.
I have always wondered how on Earth they direct a satellite and send images back from THAT far, anybody care to enlighten me? Amazing stuff, can't wait!
But just taking information that is beamed from space down to us like sat navs or sky tv. That can easily go wrong if it there is weather interference. There must be a lot more that can interfere across that huge expanse of space than just the distance/strength of the signal to get there?
Thank you for your answer. That makes sense. It does kind of make you wonder if they can send signals to something near Pluto why can't we get perfect telephone signal/internet beamed across the world. It would be interesting to know much much data they can send to the satellite near pluto and how quickly it receieves it. It must be strange controlling something with such a time difference in commands. Interesting stuff!
CaptureRapture NASA has an awesome website where you can monitor what satellite-dish is communicating with which spacecraft and what the data-rate is etc. Receiving data from spacecraft is an international effort and it is called the "Deep Space Network". Take a look here: eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
What makes me laugh is when people say that Pluto isn't a planet and they tell you "It's a DWARF planet" as if classifying it as a 'Dwarf' stops it from being a planet. So whenever I get into that argument I can usually shut that person up by asking them if Human Dwarfs are not really Humans? Pluto is indeed a planet... that's why the word 'planet' is half of the term 'dwarf planet'. :)
That would be NASA trying to drink from a fire hose! Although military expenditures advance technology, feeding the war machine (despite there being too many of us) is a poor second best venue to NASA & schools, for spin-off advancement of human knowledge, growth, and technology.
Styx was the river shades in Hades crossed over to reach the Elysium Fields. Pluto was the ferryman psychopomp. This may be the origin of the term 'living in the sticks'.
I think is going to be a surprise when New Horizon began to send pictures of the planet..yes,planet Probably one of the most beautiful of our solar system.
Hopefully it survives the flyby without hitting anything, otherwise a lot of data will be lost. It's going to take days (if not weeks or months) for the data and photos of closest approach to be radioed back to Earth. I remember seeing something like a data transfer rate of 1Kb/s is expected at the distance of Pluto, I'd sure hate to have an internet connection that slow :-)
This is awesome! I didn't even know about this mission to this little world stripped of its planetary privileges..a distant friend..looking forward to this.
Basically when a probe or space craft is launched, rockets put it on it's course and get it moving. Using complicated math, then it usually uses the gravity of planets to 'sling-shot' to a faster speed. Any maneuvering thrusters are used to correct and errors in the flight path. In space, once you get moving, since it is a virtual vacuum, you will never stop. There is virtually no friction, so theoretically you could keep moving forever. But yes, it could run out of compressed gas. That's why the math nerds need to calculate things in advance. :)
If you remember Roller-derby, a pair of teammates can give one a boost by providing a 'fling' as they pass one another. The moving gravity well around a much larger moon or planet can be used by the craft to gain (or lose) speed.
Just a fly by? I thought it was going to orbit it. Where is new horizons going to go after that? Im guessing it will exit the solar system and not be used again?
A object as tiny as Pluto could have rings?! And it has 5 moons? Wow, space can be weird. Pluto is about as big as the U.S. and Earth is bigger than it yet, it has one moon. So strange.
I love this stuff, but we have seen what Pluto must be like 35 years ago. Triton is over 99 percent mass of all Neptune moons combined, and its retrograde. it was definitely a captured cuiper belt object. Pluto must be very similar to Triton.
If they see debris they will guide the spacecraft from Earth? lol, it takes about 10 hours round trip for radio signals between Earth and Pluto; ie not feasible.
I wish they could one day in teh near future send humans to Pluto. According to the Vasmir Plasma rocket, it could fly to Mars in 39 days, So to Pluto it can reach in just 3 years!!
These projects are very important to keep NASA engineers in their job. The immense costs of these projects (Development Cost $: 700 million only) does not bring anything other than some pictures during a few hours and some measurements. Then the New Horizons becomes the Lost Horizons when the satellite follows the Voyagers into interstellar space looking for a far far planet many lightyears away. Billions of dollars wasted on a very expensive hobby...
Brian DontFindMe I think he's more referring to the fact that they called it a planet multiple times in the video (something I also thought was odd considering the new classification).
Hey NASA! You did a pretty job on making the most boring video about the biggest thing you did in a pretty long time. Do you think that this video will make people dream of it??
Oh yes, a new world, new beginnings, a fresh start and another chance for man to mess up another planet. But this one is a "dwarf" planet, so it shouldn't take us long.
Awesome … but really, as Pluto is just a part of the Oort cloud - which is made up of predominantly icy planetesimals … I don't expect much … but, still I'm excited … can't wait … !
