New Horizons Spacecraft Approaches Pluto

[dirkterrell]

We're starting to get some cool images from our spacecraft (New Horizons) that is approaching Pluto after a 9-year flight. The close approach to the planet will be in mid-July, but we're already starting to resolve some surface features that look like ice caps. That's Pluto stationary in the center and its largest moon Charon going around it.

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/nh_ice_caps.gif

More details here:

http://www.nasa.gov/pluto042915

[TFOGGuys]

Pffft...it's only a Dwarf Planet now anyway...:lol:

Seriously, though, very cool images, with more to come. Unless the Plutonian Space Defense Force shoots down the probe...

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11113/111130081/3448650-4980273015-Marvi.jpg

[dirkterrell]

And as we approach Pluto, another mission that we have been heavily involved in is ending today when the MESSENGER spacecraft executes its final orbit around Mercury and crashes into the surface at about 1:26pm our time. It was launched in 2004 and went into orbit around Mercury in 2011. It sent back a lot of cool data, giving us the first complete view of the surface.

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/mercury.jpg

[Spooph]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing Dirk!

[madvlad]

Man that is some cool stuff right there :up:

[#1Townie]

So when we moving to mars?

[Snowman]

Here you go..
Mars missionaries: One-way ticket to space (http://www.dw.de/mars-missionaries-one-way-ticket-to-space/av-18390700)

[Lomax]

Very nice. Thanks for the update and the pictures.

Marc

[Spooph]

Dirk, you know anything about the EM drive?

[dirkterrell]

Dirk, you know anything about the EM drive?

No, I don't work with any of the propulsion stuff.

[rybo]

Dirk,

You might have the coolest job of any person I know.

My boys are totally geeked out on space, and want to be astronauts. I love showing them the stuff you post.

Please keep up the good work, and know that I'm writing to my representatives to encourage them to increase funding for space exploration.

Scott

[dirkterrell]

Dirk,

You might have the coolest job of any person I know.


It has its moments. :)



My boys are totally geeked out on space, and want to be astronauts. I love showing them the stuff you post.

Please keep up the good work, and know that I'm writing to my representatives to encourage them to increase funding for space exploration.

Scott

Thank you for doing that. These are very tough times for the field. I have seen so many talented people spend a decade or more in school preparing to become research scientists, only to leave the field because there simply aren't the resources to support them. By my estimation from serving on review panels and NASA and the National Science Foundation, we fund less than half of the proposed research that is deemed worthwhile by the field. Young people who dream of working in this field should be encourage, but in a realistic manner. Figures like below do not leave me encouraged about the future.

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/SR-fed-spending-numbers-2012-p2-2-chart-3_HIGHRES.jpg

[madvlad]

We have the resources to pay for people to riot/refuse to work but not for something as important as space exploration? Oh what a f'd up world we live in... :no:.... sure hope the funding continues and +1 with Rybo, you do have a damn cool job.

[dirkterrell]

We're a week out from close approach and things are looking very interesting. Pluto on the right and its largest moon Charon on the left:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/data/pluto/level2/lor/jpeg/029861/lor_0298615084_0x630_sci_1.jpg

[Jmetz]

I vote for a name change to the Event Horizon.

[madvlad]

That's awesome

[Stuart Little]

... Pluto on the right and its largest moon Charon on the left:

That's no moon, it's a spa.. no, it's a moon.

Pluto (on the right) looks to be the same size as its moon & Charon doesn't even look like it's on the same plane as Pluto yet (of course this is hard to tell from the photo but that's what it looks like)!

[Zanatos]

Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, and Social Security are not entitlements. People pay into those programs their entire lives - and a lot of folks never get a dime of that money back.

Just sayin'.

[Generic]

Dirk,

You might have the coolest job of any person I know.

My boys are totally geeked out on space, and want to be astronauts. I love showing them the stuff you post.

Please keep up the good work, and know that I'm writing to my representatives to encourage them to increase funding for space exploration.

Scott

Just want to re-inforce this, I love space and my daughter is getting interested. I can't wait to see where it takes her.

[dirkterrell]

Close approach is tomorrow morning. This is a shot from July 11. The bit rate from that far out is pretty slow so it will take a year or so to get all of the data back.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/pics/071215_Pluto_Alone.png

[dirkterrell]

Closest approach to Pluto was about two hours ago. The spacecraft is furiously taking data right now, and will phone home in about 11 hours. Hopefully we'll have some really nice images of the surface shortly thereafter.

[dirkterrell]

Here is the color picture taken before the spacecraft went into its encounter sequence:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/pluto_approach.jpg

[madvlad]

Too cool man :up:

[TFOGGuys]

What is the radio lag at this point?

[dirkterrell]

About 4.5 hours.

[madvlad]

I'm not an expert but that's not bad considering the distance, is that good time or bad time?

[dirkterrell]

I'm not an expert but that's not bad considering the distance, is that good time or bad time?

Not sure what you mean exactly. It's determined by the speed of light. The data rate from the spacecraft is about 1000 bits per second, not bad for a 12 watt transmitter at a distance of almost three billion miles. It takes about 45 minutes to send a full image back. It'll take about 16 months to get all of the data back.

[madvlad]

Yes that's what I meant, that's not bad time at all. Thanks for clarifying

[~Barn~]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEg4D7s3fOs&feature=youtu.be

[longrider]

Dirk, I have a question. In the year plus it is going to take to send all the data back is it still moving out of the solar system or did it do some kind of maneuver around Pluto to keep it closer?

[dirkterrell]

No, it is on an orbit that will take it out of the solar system. In order to get there in a reasonable amount of time, it had to be accelerated to a high speed. (It is the fastest spacecraft ever launched.) That made it impossible to slow down enough to go into orbit around Pluto. The good thing is that it will be possible for it to encounter another Pluto-like body in a few years, assuming NASA provides the funding to carry out an extended mission. We found suitable targets using Hubble, and it is a region of the solar system of great interest scientifically, so I feel pretty confident that the extended mission will go forward.

[~Barn~]

It's very cool to have an inside perspective. Thanks for always sharing this stuff, Dirk. :up:

P.S. I had to go back and appreciate that shot of Mercury from the MESSENGER craft again. That planet looks fantastic.

[dirkterrell]

It's very cool to have an inside perspective. Thanks for always sharing this stuff, Dirk. :up:

P.S. I had to go back and appreciate that shot of Mercury from the MESSENGER craft again. That planet looks fantastic.

I consider it a duty to share with and explain to the public the things they have paid for us to discover. And yes, Mercury is a very neat planet. Before MESSENGER, it had been pretty neglected in terms of missions (only Mariner 10). One of the discoveries made by MESSENGER is that there is a significant amount of water ice on the surface. Yes, ice on a planet where the surface temperature can reach 800 degrees F. Because it has only the thinnest of atmospheres, ice can survive in the places that are permanently in shadow.

[rybo]

My understanding is it takes a receiver with a 200' dish to catch the messages and data from New Horizons.

We were out to dinner the other night with family and the restaurant had a giant chalk board. The boys drew a picture that included Pluto, Charron and New Horizons. The waitress was blown away that the boys even knew what these things were and I found that disturbing. Every kid should dream about adventure and space in my humble opinion.

Anyways, fastest spacecraft in history - again if I recall 31,000 Miles an Hour by using the gravity of Jupiter to slingshot it into outer orbit. Cool.

[dirkterrell]

My understanding is it takes a receiver with a 200' dish to catch the messages and data from New Horizons.


Yes, they are 70 meter antennas, so about 230' across.



We were out to dinner the other night with family and the restaurant had a giant chalk board. The boys drew a picture that included Pluto, Charron and New Horizons. The waitress was blown away that the boys even knew what these things were and I found that disturbing. Every kid should dream about adventure and space in my humble opinion.


I agree. Even to me, knowing how such things are done in detail, it's amazing to think that we can send a half-ton spacecraft on a 3 billion mile, 9+ year journey and get there on schedule to take images (and a bunch of other data). Our species can do amazing things sometimes. I hope we never lose sight of the importance of that sense of wonder and exploration.



Anyways, fastest spacecraft in history - again if I recall 31,000 Miles an Hour by using the gravity of Jupiter to slingshot it into outer orbit. Cool.

Yep. Jupiter is a big help when it comes to getting to far away places.

[Zanatos]

That's no dwarf planet.

http://plus613.net/images/f/b/0/9/www_plus613_net_plutostar.jpg

[Kim-n-Dean]

I hope we never lose sight of the importance of that sense of wonder and exploration.
Too late, we already have. It's been replaced with Face Book. Walk down the street and ask ten different people how many planets are in our solar system. Ask what number Earth is from the sun, and if they know, it's only because they used to watch "Third Rock Form the Sun".

We used to be some explorin' sons of bitches. That's all gone, now.


Yep. Jupiter is a big help when it comes to getting to far away places....and when it come to keeping large, dangerous objects out.

[dirkterrell]

There will be a press conference at 1pm MDT today with some of the close-up imagery released. All I can say right now is that you will definitely want to see this.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[dirkterrell]

Too late, we already have. It's been replaced with Face Book. Walk down the street and ask ten different people how many planets are in our solar system. Ask what number Earth is from the sun, and if they know, it's only because they used to watch "Third Rock Form the Sun".

We used to be some explorin' sons of bitches. That's all gone, now.


I'm not quite that cynical. I mean, we are exploring Pluto and we have a whole variety of missions underway. We certainly do need to do a better job of educating the public on what we do and why it's important. But I bet you could have walked down the street in 1804 and most people wouldn't have known who Lewis and Clark were. My feeling is that the majority of humanity has always been more absorbed by the goings on around. It is a relative few who have an interest in things way outside of their sphere of experience, but the good thing is that most appreciate the basic research that was done in the past that leads to better lives for themselves. We just need to do a better job of showing them the importance to future generations of what we are doing now.

[Kim-n-Dean]

I'm not quite that cynical. I mean, we are exploring Pluto and we have a whole variety of missions underway. We certainly do need to do a better job of educating the public on what we do and why it's important. But I bet you could have walked down the street in 1804 and most people wouldn't have known who Lewis and Clark were. My feeling is that the majority of humanity has always been more absorbed by the goings on around. It is a relative few who have an interest in things way outside of their sphere of experience, but the good thing is that most appreciate the basic research that was done in the past that leads to better lives for themselves. We just need to do a better job of showing them the importance to future generations of what we are doing now.You might be using cynical wrong in this example. I'm not saying anything about not trusting people or accusing anyone of having lacking morals.:lol:

I sure am glad there are people like you still around. They are very few and far between and a dying breed. When I was a kid, I knew many, many adults and other kids who were full of wonder and adventure. I just don't see it, now. I'm in a very large architectural/engineering firm right now. Lots of supposed highly educated people. From time to time I ask questions about technical things or current events and no one knows shit!!! And to make it worse, they don't even care!! When I talk about your art or what you do for a living or just mention NASA, people roll their eyes. Some say it's a total waste of money. Makes me sick!!!

Keep up the good work, my friend. Maybe come over for dinner some time, have a beer and discuss string theory for an hour or ten...

[dirkterrell]

You might be using cynical wrong in this example. I'm not saying anything about not trusting people or accusing anyone of having lacking morals.:lol:


Ok, pessimistic is probably a better choice. :)



I sure am glad there are people like you still around. They are very few and far between and a dying breed. When I was a kid, I knew many, many adults and other kids who were full of wonder and adventure. I just don't see it, now. I'm in a very large architectural/engineering firm right now. Lots of supposed highly educated people. From time to time I ask questions about technical things or current events and no one knows shit!!! And to make it worse, they don't even care!! When I talk about your art or what you do for a living or just mention NASA, people roll their eyes. Some say it's a total waste of money. Makes me sick!!!


Well, as I often say, some of the dumbest people I know are highly educated. There will always be people who think exploration is a waste. Probably two percent of the population drags the rest along into the future. Some people are just naturally curious and they shouldn't allow the closed-mindedness of others to drag them down.



Keep up the good work, my friend. Maybe come over for dinner some time, have a beer and discuss string theory for an hour or ten...

I'll have to do that sometime. But string theory is too much for my little mind. I like things that are more easily tested. :)

[Kim-n-Dean]

I'll have to do that sometime. But string theory is too much for my little mind. I like things that are more easily tested. :)I sure would have loved to hear Carl Sagan speak. Never got the opportunity, though. Could have listened to that man for hours!

Soon after he died and realizing I'd never get the chance to see him, I rented the entire Nova series on VHS and was highly disappointed. The series seemed to be geared for kids. I had no idea.

[dirkterrell]

I sure would have loved to hear Carl Sagan speak. Never got the opportunity, though. Could have listened to that man for hours!

Soon after he died and realizing I'd never get the chance to see him, I rented the entire Nova series on VHS and was highly disappointed. The series seemed to be geared for kids. I had no idea.

Are you talking about Cosmos? That was a transformational series for me when it came out. I ran into Carl in an elevator once at a meeting. I mentioned how Cosmos had solidified my desire to become an astronomer. He was very kind and seemed almost humbled, and I'm sure he had heard the same thing from others many times. We lost a truly great soul when he passed.

[Kim-n-Dean]

Are you talking about Cosmos? That was a transformational series for me when it came out. I ran into Carl in an elevator once at a meeting. I mentioned how Cosmos had solidified my desire to become an astronomer. He was very kind and seemed almost humbled, and I'm sure he had heard the same thing from others many times. We lost a truly great soul when he passed.Ooops. Yup, Cosmos.

I introduced Kim to him and she was hooked instantly. He had a way of speaking that really reached inside you. Can't remember my first introduction, perhaps, Cosmos or something in grade school, but he's inspired me as far back as I can remember.

[dirkterrell]

So, yesterday was pretty exciting scientifically. The closeup image of Pluto's moon Charon shows that it has a surprisingly young surface (few craters, which means the surface must be fairly active) and it has a deep (~5 miles) canyon at the 2 o'clock position in this image:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/nh-charon.jpg

Pluto itself also surprised a lot of people with its surface features. It has few craters and large (11,000 feet high) mountains:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/nh-pluto-surface-scale.jpg

The big question these youthful surfaces raise is what is the mechanism driving them? First, let me explain what we mean by "young surfaces" since it can be a little confusing. By "young" we don't mean that the material itself is newly made. These bodies formed when the solar system formed over 4 billion years ago. What we mean by young, is that the surface has been altered significantly in geologically recent times (here about in the last 100 million years, which is a tiny fraction of the 4 billion year age of the planet). To give you examples closer to home, the Earth has a young surface because it's changing do to erosion, plate tectonics, vulcanism, etc. and the Moon has an old surface because it hasn't changed much in billions of years. The Earth has a lot of internal energy that drives the changes of its surface. The Moon does not.

Early in the life of the solar system, there was a period where a lot of debris was flying around and crashing into the planets, leaving lots of craters. Once that debris cleared out, things were (and have been) relatively calm. Because the Moon shows lots of craters left over from this time period (measured by dating the rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts), we can deduce that it has an old surface. The craters that were formed during this period (we refer to it as the "Late Heavy Bombardment"; "late" because it happened late in the formation process of the Earth-Moon system) on the Earth have long since been destroyed by the activity of the surface, so the Earth's surface is young.

We expected Pluto and Charon to have old surfaces. They are small bodies and should long ago have cooled and solidified (like the Moon), leaving nothing churning in the interior. If you look at Jupiter's largest moons, they are all roughly the size of our Moon, so they should also be cooled off and inactive. The two farthest from Jupiter (Ganymede and Callisto) are that way, and have old surfaces. Here is Callisto, with craters all over the place:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/Callisto.jpg

But the two large moons close to Jupiter (Io and Europa) have very active surfaces, i.e. almost no craters. Io is the innermost of the two:

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/Io.jpg

Don't be fooled by what might look like craters. Those are actually volcanoes! Io's surface is extremely young, with no craters. So, why do the inner two moons have such active surfaces if they should have long ago cooled off like our Moon? The reason lies with Jupiter itself. These two moons are so close to Jupiter that the gravitational tidal force from Jupiter stretches them back and forth as they revolve around the planet, heating them up (much like twisting a piece of metal back and forth heats it up). That is the mechanism driving the surface activity on Io and Europa.

So, back to Pluto and Charon. They should have long ago cooled off and have old surfaces. Clearly they do not, so what is the mechanism that provides the energy to change the surface? The answer at the moment is "We don't know." There is no big source of gravity to drive tidal heating like Jupiter does to Io and Europa. Maybe there is some other dynamical mechanism that could heat up the planets. (I can think of at least one possibility, but I need to work out the math to see if it's plausible.) It may very well be that cratering out that far was different from what we know happened in the inner solar system, and the surfaces of Pluto and Charon are actually pretty old. Our understanding of the outer solar system is still very incomplete, coming along really only in the last 20 years. We have so much to learn.

These puzzles are why the mission scientists are so excited about the about the observations that New Horizons has made. Puzzles are what we scientists live for.

[asp_125]

Fascinating stuff!

[Slo]

This thread has got to be one of the better exciting reads I have had in a while!! Awesome stuff....

[rybo]

Dirk -

I was thinking about the download time and the distance and speeds you're playing with and I have a question: Is the doppler effect a factor in sorting out the data? With a 1 KBPS download speed and a spacecraft traveling away from us at 31,000 mph I have to think that it's a significant issue.

[dirkterrell]

Dirk -

I was thinking about the download time and the distance and speeds you're playing with and I have a question: Is the doppler effect a factor in sorting out the data? With a 1 KBPS download speed and a spacecraft traveling away from us at 31,000 mph I have to think that it's a significant issue.

It's not a big effect, but it does have to be accounted for. The change in the wavelength divided by the (rest) wavelength is the relative speed divided by the speed of light. 31,000 mph is about 8 miles per second. The speed of light is about 186,000 miles per second. So, you can see that the effect is not huge, but it is certainly measurable.

[dirkterrell]

Here is a closeup in the "heart":

http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~terrell/images/pluto_heart_closeup.jpg

Some JPEG artifacts in there, but this region really has the geologists scratching their heads.

[dirkterrell]

Check out this one that is looking back at Pluto about 15 minutes after closest approach:

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-apluto-wide-9-17-15-final_0.png

[Spooph]

That's gorgeous! What a mountainous little rock..