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Lifting the Veil On Pluto's Atmosphere
New submitter Pedro Braganca sends an update on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, now less than four days to closest approach. While we're waiting, NASA has published the best images of Pluto and Charon yet seen. We're starting to be able to make out surface details: A high-contrast array of bright and dark features covers Pluto's surface, while on Charon, only a dark polar region interrupts a generally more uniform light gray terrain. The reddish materials that color Pluto are absent on Charon. Pluto has a significant atmosphere; Charon does not. On Pluto, exotic ices like frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide have been found, while Charon's surface is made of frozen water and ammonia compounds. The interior of Pluto is mostly rock, while Charon contains equal measures of rock and water ice.
A countdown to closest approach is present on the New Horizons mission page, as well as the raw image feed.
Charon is about 750 miles (1200 kilometers) across, about half the diameter of Pluto—making it the solar system’s largest moon relative to its planet.
Sounds like someone at NASA is still not over Pluto not being a planet. Let it go... let it go...
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
I <3 Pluto
There is little point in commenting on this stuff for the next few days. Just enjoy. Pluto is getting very big in New Horizon's field of view. The book on Pluto will be rewritten every few hours now. Strange to comment on the atmosphere which we cannot see, when terra incognita lies before us.
Pop-Sy Media coverage of this mission is generally piss poor, so I'll just ask here. Is the probe going to flyby the Pluto system or will it be entering orbit?
While I'm at it, what would be the additional Delta V cost of the latter anyway?
New Horizons is the fastest object ever launched.
No it is not. Not even close to the fastest object we've ever launched. That honor goes to the Helios-A and Helios-B probes which traveled about 70km/s. Much faster than the 16km/s of New Horizons.
New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, from Cape Canaveral, directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative speed of about 16.26 kilometers per second (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph); it set the record for the highest launch speed of a human-made object from Earth.
Still probably not correct. I refer you to the manhole cover over the Pascal-B nuclear test. Basically we unintentionally (maybe?) made a nuclear powered potato canon. (which is AWESOME) The manhole cover was estimated to have been launched at 41,000mph - possibly being vaporized in the process.
Unfortunately, the Gamilon advanced planet bomb base on Pluto is hidden with a concealment field, so it is unlikely the New Horizons probe will be able to provide targeting information.
Ralph has about 1/5 the angular resolution of the B&W camera so combining both images may give wrong results. I wouldn't be surprised if in reality Pluto had bright red and white patches instead of the uniform orange from the picture.
Since planets mostly formed out of the same stuff as comets did, why not call THEM "planets" too! Lets call EVERYTHING A planet, just so we don't have to stop calling Pluto a planet.
Pluto isn't a planet. Coren you need to get over it. It's done. Stick a fork in it. It isn't a planet by IAU definition, and will, in the business not be called a planet.
As can be shown by the efforts needed to take to make out there is a problem (namely, curtailing the definition into a single cherry picked claim). The definition is fine. There isn't a better one. NONE OF THE OTHER definitions did half as well (not mathematically proven statement) as the current one did.
It isn't perfect, but it's a hell of a lot more perfect than "Geophysical definition".
Oh, to the other AC, may be you, the fact that people have a problem with it is irrelevant. They never knew pluto was a planet until discovered (and the mass expected was 10x as much as it actually had, so much for "discovered a planet": only 10% there!). If it had been called an asteroid then we'd not have the problem now.
You DO know we have asteroids bigger than pluto, right?
And in 30 years the kids won't have any problem not calling pluto a planet. Hell, millenials probably have no issue NOW.
The unassailable world speed champion is another US spacecraft, the Galileo Atmosphere Probe. It plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere at 47km/s.
Your link states 41 mi/s which is equal to 147600 mi/h. And since it was never measured exactly, it couldn't set a record.
Typo. Forgot the 1 in front. And yes it CAN set a record because we can very clearly set a lower bound for its speed. Since it was only in the screen for one frame and we know how much distance it had to cover at minimum in the time between frames we know the lower bound of the speed with good certainty. Might be faster but it can still set a record because nothing has gone faster than its lower bound.
The unassailable world speed champion is another US spacecraft, the Galileo Atmosphere Probe. It plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere at 47km/s.
That's still slower than the manhole cover (66km/s) and the Helios probes (70km/s)
Gotta get it shouted down, though, right guys?
This is one of our very last RTG's we're throwing away. What benefit in the civilian sector can we expect for our tax dollars?
Very, very cool.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.