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NASA's New Horizons Focuses On Pluto's Largest Moon Charon
MarkWhittington writes: New Horizons has already discovered much of what was previously unknown about Pluto, the dwarf planet that is the former ninth planet from the sun. NASA reported that the space probe has also uncovered some of the secrets of Pluto's largest moon, Charon. It has found indications of impact craters on the moon's gray surface as well as a chasm that seems to be bigger than the Grand Canyon on Earth. Charon has a diameter of just 1440 miles. By contrast, Earth has a diameter of 7918 miles.
Really it's impressive before you think about it. The Earth has active plate tectonics and ongoing weathering. It should come as no surprise that planets which don't have more pronounced features.
>> Pluto, the dwarf planet that is the former ninth planet from the sun
Thanks for the explanation - as Slashdot readers, we needed it.
Charon has a diameter of just 2317 km. By contrast, Earth has a diameter of 12743 km.
(FTFY - assuming statute miles, not nautical miles.)
I wonder what they have planned for the craft once it passes Pluto.
Really it's impressive before you think about it. The Earth has active plate tectonics and ongoing weathering. It should come as no surprise that planets which don't have more pronounced features.
Also, the Earth has much higher gravity. Surface elevation gradients are much more pronounced on bodies with lower surface gravity, even though they have higher tidal gradients. Mars' largest volcano, Mons Olympus, could not stand on Earth due to the 3x higher gravity here.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
"has also uncovered some of the secrets of Pluto's largest moon, Charon. It has found indications of impact craters on the moon's gray surface."
Wow! Who would have thought? That's a big secret for sure!
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Actually, some mountains (notably Everest) and the deep sea trenches are there because of plate tectonics, not despite it.
With a chasm that large, it should be easy to see the frozen Mass Relay. C'mon New Horizons, start melting!
The center of mass in the Pluto-Charon system lies outside of either body. It's not a moon. They are a double (dwarf) planetary system.
The data rate for sending images and other science data is really low. That's because of the extreme distance and because New Horizons has limited power (produced by its RTG). The images, once they get home, are going to be great, but it's going to take a while to get it all back.
The best hires photos are going to come 19 months from now, I read. It just takes a long time to send a lot of data that far.
While it doesn't have water near the surface (possibly a fairly deep subsurface ocean), there are liquids that could exist near the surface. The pressure fluctuates wildly, but at today's pressure, it would take about 13 meters of slightly-porous nitrogen ice (more of methane ice) for nitrogen to be able to reach its triple point. That's the equivalent of the weight of less than 1 meter of ice on Earth, so not something abnormally strong or compacted. Additionally, there's all sorts of things that can be liquids at different temperatures and pressures... there could be some rather complicated fluid interactions as depth increase, and they'd change over time.
That's not saying that there are liquids right now - and barring some sort of eutectic effect, I wouldn't expect to see any on the surface due to the low pressure. But there could be something akin to the earth equivalents of sea ice or rivers with frozen surfaces, and not all that deep.
The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems.
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mfwright@batnet.com
PLUTO has a diameter of 1440 miles.
Charon has a diameter of 790.
-Styopa
Comcast customers can relate.
On a Sirius note, I wonder how Voyager II dealt with similar conditions at Neptune. It did have a tape recorder. I think it had more power and a bigger antenna than NH. But probably in or near the same order of magnitude. Once Voyager left Neptune, it didn't have a new target such that it had plenty of time for data relay.
Table-ized A.I.
Mars' largest volcano, Mons Olympus, could not stand on Earth
Why, would it tip over?
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
During the fly-by New Horizons will be pointing its cameras and instruments at Pluto and the various moons, which means _not_ pointing the antenna at us. Later the probe will play back the recordings for transmission, but right now it's busy
This document shows the schedule for which camera will be taking what photos, the quality of the photos, and when they will be transmitted to earth:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Missio...
Some nice subtle snarks there, but yeah. 50-60 years seems like a long time for "the preliminary reconnaissance of the solar system", but hey, yeah. Historically it's not really out of line with how it has happened in the past.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Sirius had nothing whatsoever to do with the Voyager missions - it was all XM Radio! That's why Sirius failed. They were too busy faking the moon landing while XM was exploring the Galaxy! Turn in your geek card! LUSER!