Homing in on Pluto

[Baclava]

One Month from Pluto: NASA’s New Horizons is on Track, All Clear, and Ready for Action

With the spacecraft nearly 2.95 billion miles from home, the radio transmissions from its communications system need nearly 4.5 hours to reach Earth.



What’s Next?

In the last week of June, the Pluto approach enters its third and final far encounter science phase—called Approach Phase 3, which runs until seven days before Pluto close approach.

“AP3” highlights include taking additional images of the Pluto system for final navigation purposes; mapping Pluto and Charon in increasing detail and watching for variability in color, surface composition and atmospheric patterns as the small planets rotate; and searching for new moon and rings with even greater sensitivity. New Horizons will also continue sampling of the interplanetary environment – measuring both solar wind and high-energy particles, as well as dust-particle concentrations – approaching Pluto and its moons.

“Every day we break a new distance record to Pluto, and every day our data get better,” says mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “Nothing like this kind of frontier, outer solar system exploration has happened since Voyager 2 was at Neptune way back in 1989. It’s exciting--come and watch as New Horizons turns points of light into a newly explored planetary system and its moons!”

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/one-month-from-pluto-nasa-s-new-horizons-is-on-track-all-clear-and-ready-for-action

[shenmue]

1. Not a planet, huh?

Take that!

[Warpy]

2. It might have been busted back to planetoid,

but it's still one of the most interesting objects in our neighborhood. Out so far beyond Jupiter, it might still be accreting, sweeping up stray matter that wanders in from the Oort Cloud, maybe with a core that's still warm, relatively speaking.

I have a feeling it's going to provide a few surprises, at least I hope so.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Can't wait. And buried in that article is a good way to understand the scope of interstellar space.

It takes 4 and a half hours for communications from the probe, to reach us. So New Horizons is 4.5 light hours away.

Think of the difference between 4 and a half hours, and a year: That is exactly comparable in scale to the difference between the distance to pluto, and a light year. The Centauri system is approx. 4 Light Years away.

Daunting.

Still it is breathtaking that humanity is starting to gradually stick a toe into the interstellar medium.


And lastly, "planet" is just a label, or what used to be an arbitrary definition that was changed (and for good reason, because if Pluto is a "planet", by any rational standard that isn't based upon favoritism or 'grandfathering in', then bodes like Eris are, too) .... but look at it this way- we've been sending probes past "planets" for decades. This is the FIRST time we've had an up close look at a trans-neptunian or Kuiper Belt Object.

Exciting stuff.

[burrowowl]

4. Less difficult than landing on a comet

but hopefully we will learn a lot!

[Warren DeMontague]

5. This required patience and perseverance, to be sure

and the ability to build a machine that can hibernate in interplanetary space for 9 years and then be relied upon to wake up and do its job, can't be overstated...

that said, after the last course corrections it's pretty much autopilot. Just get the pictures and data and send em home as you whizz by.

[Baclava]

6. The Year of Pluto - Trailer

Hope it takes good pictures