New Horizons

[Frida Space]

13 minutes, 28 seconds before the fly-by this'll happen.

I can feel that in my bones.

Haha, that's why I'm exceptionally full of technology around me right now. If one fails, I have many other. Redundancy FTW.

Here's an awesome montage from Phil Stooke. One picture missing for a complete rotation!

Also, check out this cool flyby animation with update surface maps:

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"raw" image data from July 11th is finally online.

[Robotengineer]

Will we get any new pics before the fly-by is over?

[Sylandro]

Could New Horizons snap pictures of Haumea, Makemake and Eris at this distance? On the other hand, Pluto heavily reminds me of Triton.

[lajoswinkler]

I don't know about you, but one part of Pluto reminds me of The Oatmeal goofy faces.

[Frida Space]

Will we get any new pics before the fly-by is over?

Yes, they said they were going to release today's photos on encounter day (tomorrow). I'm not sure if there are other planned image releases but it's likely, we're still at the July 11th photos.

From NASA TV's schedule:

July 14th

1400-1500 Media briefing, image release

(the time is in CEST, for EDT subtract 6 hours)

[Robotengineer]

NASA Eyes in one full screen desktop (not physical desktop, Mac thing), DSN Now in another, KSP forums in one tab and New Horizons update video in another. When does NASA TV full-time coverage start?

[Frida Space]

When does NASA TV full-time coverage start?

Pre-flyby briefing starts in 8 minutes.

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Amazing news from Alan Stern! My notes so far:

- spectroscopy confirms that Pluto's ice cap is in fact an ice cap, made of nitrogen and methan ices

- Pluto is LARGER than expected! Radius is 1185 +/- 10 km: that means it's also less dense, so more ice in its interior

- escaping N2 from Pluto's atmosphere was detected already 5 days ago, and it's more and farther away from Pluto than we expected: either the escape rate is higher, or the transport mechanism is different than thought.

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New color image!

[Robotengineer]

Sometimes it seems like the reporters don't pay attention to the presentation before the QA.

[LordFerret]

Pre-flyby briefing starts in 8 minutes.

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Amazing news from Alan Stern! My notes so far:

- spectroscopy confirms that Pluto's ice cap is in fact an ice cap, made of nitrogen and methan ices

- Pluto is LARGER than expected! Radius is 1185 +/- 10 km: that means it's also less dense, so more ice in its interior

- escaping N2 from Pluto's atmosphere was detected already 5 days ago, and it's more and farther away from Pluto than we expected: either the escape rate is higher, or the transport mechanism is different than thought.

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New color image!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJzU1BgVEAQMcqA.png

I think the answer to that is in the post you put up the other day.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/102112-New-Horizons?p=2075404&viewfull=1#post2075404

[Frida Space]

Charon's radius is 602-3 km.

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I think the answer to that is in the post you put up the other day.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/102112-New-Horizons?p=2075404&viewfull=1#post2075404

^^ interesting!

[Mitchz95]

So Pluto's bigger than Eris, and Charon is the size of Kerbin? Awesome!

[Pluto100]

But really, I'm so excited for this! After all these years, it's finally here... Splendid!

[HoloYolo]

Imagine if the camera failed right now.

[lajoswinkler]

Told you so, there's a polar cap on Pluto. I was right.

So Pluto's bigger than Eris, and Charon is the size of Kerbin? Awesome!

We don't know that because the data on Eris has nowhere near the precision available for Pluto.

[Frida Space]

Told you so, there's a polar cap on Pluto. I was right.

Congrats on your correct prediction!

Talking about Eris, we actually know for sure it's smaller than Pluto. Pluto's diameter is 2370 +/- 20 km. Eris is 2,336 +/- 12 km. So, Pluto's diameter could be as short as 2350 km, but Eris could be maximum 2348 km wide, so even in this unlikely scenario Pluto would still be larger than Eris.

I find it fascinating that Eris is smaller than Pluto yet more massive, I would have thought that they should have been similar worlds, however it appears not, at least in terms of composition.

Also, this: the methane absorption bands are much weaker in the dark regions (whale?) than in the brighter ones, according to Stern.

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Imagine if the camera failed right now.

No, don't even, no.

[Mitchz95]

We don't know that because the data on Eris has nowhere near the precision available for Pluto.

Well, according to Wikipedia (which admittedly might not be the most accurate source) Eris has a radius of 1163±6 km. Even assuming it's on the high end, and Pluto's radius on the low end, Pluto should still lead by at least six kilometers. Pretty close either way, and of course Eris's atmosphere (if it has one) might mess things up.

Too bad we can't reroute New Horizons to visit Eris next.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

[gmpd2000]

Imagine if the camera failed right now.

Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope.

[Tw1]

Hey guys, look what I made:

It's got ALICE, LORRI, SDC and everything.

Album to come when I can be bothered.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Tw1

[Frida Space]

^^ awesome!

For us metric guys, we're now well past the 1,000,000 km milestone.

[windows_x_seven]

Only 18 hours left.

HYPEHYPEHYPEHYPEHYPE

[Robotengineer]

Where is the hype?

[Candlelight]

14 hours left

What are you waiting for?!

HYPE!

[Shpaget]

Add four and a half hours for the coms delay.

[Robotengineer]

Add four and a half hours for the coms delay.

Add more for the occult observations.

[Emperoreddy]

If this doesn't get you hype, nothing will. Do we have dunes?