New Horizons

[How2FoldSoup]

I wonder if Squad will ever change Eeloo to look more like Pluto.

Also, is Pluto really that bright? Or is the contrast exaggerated to make the surface features more visible?

I recall seeing someone calculating that the difference in brightness(to our eyes) on pluto with Earth is about the difference of your eyes adjusting from outdoors to indoors, and that humans wouldn't have much difficulty seeing on the day side. I don't have a source and and just going off memory, so I could be wrong.

Edit: Well I guess I should have refreshed the page first before replying, woops.

[Scotius]

I think differences in appearance betwen Pluto and Charon are due to amount of volatiles remaining on the surface of each. Smaller Charon lost most of them already, while Pluto's surface is still covered in ices, with bits of atmosphere still clinging to the planet.

[Spock1108]

This is my reading of the new images of Pluto ... I do not know if anyone has noticed already, but seems to see a rille that crosses the disk of Pluto. It could also be a mountain range or even better a fault in the ice ... Ocean?

Besides, this white stripe runs after the big ring clear ... strengthening my theory of a ring similar to those Io's volcanic.

[Frida Space]

An updated Pluto map, as always by Bjorn Jonsson:

Also, I'm guessing most of the people here haven't been following every single page of this thread (I haven't either), so I'm going to publish again a plot of New Horizons' trajectory through the Pluto system I made a few months back which is still 100% accurate. I had it checked by New Horizons team members (which pointed out a few mistakes I corrected in this version), so it should be fine.

[Scotius]

Almost 14 kilometers per second Is this fastest fly-by ever? Also, will New Horizons get a gravity assist from Pluto accelerating it, or is Pluto too small to give any noticeable push to the probe?

[RocketPilot573]

This is really quite amazing, finally being able to see Pluto in a half decent resolution.

[Frida Space]

Finally, the LORRI "raw" images page is being updated once again! http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/index.php

- - - Updated - - -

Also, will New Horizons get a gravity assist from Pluto accelerating it, or is Pluto too small to give any noticeable push to the probe?

I'm still in high school so I have no idea of how to calculate the Delta V of a gravity assist, but based on what I know about gravity and forces I calculated that, at closest approach (13 695 km from center, treating Pluto as a point of mass), New Horizons will experience an acceleration of 0.0046 m/s^2. It's not so precise because I don't know the current mass of New Horizons, so I had to use its launch mass. Considering that the flyby will be very quick and that the acceleration will be considerably lower before and after closest approach, I'd say Pluto's influence should be negligible. Obviously I'd expect the JHUAPL folks to have already calculated New Horizons' post-encounter trajectory, but for us normal space-fans it should be negligible.

[Spock1108]

the dimensions increase as the eye!

[Rithsom]

This is very exciting. The new images of Pluto are simply amazing compared to what we had before. I can't wait for what we get at the flyby.

[lajoswinkler]

Almost 14 kilometers per second Is this fastest fly-by ever? Also, will New Horizons get a gravity assist from Pluto accelerating it, or is Pluto too small to give any noticeable push to the probe?

Depends on this.

It will be negligible but it will occur.

[Halo_003]

So for someone who just recently started following NH updates, what is its mission after it passes Pluto? Where will it go?

[Kryten]

It's going to be transmitting stored data from the Pluto flyby (for over a year-bandwidth out there isn't great), then flyby another KBO in the 2018/2019 period. There are two targets still being considered, decision should be made which in august. Both are much smaller than Pluto, probably <100km diameter.

[Spock1108]

you go to visit an object of the Kuiper Belt ... identified recently by hubble just for new horizons .. will be the 'most distant object ever visited

[Frida Space]

^ if it gets funding, which is something we can never give for granted!

Well, Alex Parker just confirmed what our thoughts were:

[Robotengineer]

The daily updates look and feel like a sports program show, I'm not too fond of that, but oh well.

[Frida Space]

Still waiting for an official press release from NASA, but according to multiple sources a plutonian patrol has stopped New Horizons. Pluto flyby now expected NET October.

[Robotengineer]

Still waiting for an official press release from NASA, but according to multiple sources a plutonian patrol has stopped New Horizons. Pluto flyby now expected NET October.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=36704

What do you mean by Plutonian Patrol? Did the spacecraft get hit? That doesn't make any sense!

Edited July 10, 2015 by Robotengineer

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

wait, what? what do you mean, what happened?

[LordFerret]

^ if it gets funding, which is something we can never give for granted!

Well, Alex Parker just confirmed what our thoughts were:

Plus, according to his twitter feed we are now officially in Pluto space!

- - - Updated - - -

Actually, we have been in Pluto's Hill sphere for a few days at least.

Pluto's Hill sphere radius: 7676440 km (according to my calculations so probably very approx.)

Current distance: 4596994 km and closing in

- - - Updated - - -

In fact, according to my calculator we reached Pluto's Hill sphere 2.57 days ago (2 days, 13 hours, 38 minutes ago), which results in July 8th, 3:40:13 CEST (1:40 UTC or 21:40:13 EDT July 7th).

[Mr Shifty]

Still waiting for an official press release from NASA, but according to multiple sources a plutonian patrol has stopped New Horizons. Pluto flyby now expected NET October.

That's what I've been saying all along. The Plutonians never agreed to this fly-by in the first place. We should have expected one of their patrols to catch NH before it got there. Hopefully they'll expedite the abeyance and we can get back on track. It's not like they really have anything to hide from us, is it?

[Scotius]

NH got pulled over for speeding Ticket wil be substantial - i mean, 14 km\s?

[Robotengineer]

It was a joke?

[NFUN]

The police suspected New Horizons of drug trafficking, so they pulled it over and it is waiting for its trial. Nobody has paid the bail for it

[Frida Space]

Lol. Lame joke results are in: 50% understood and continued it, 50% panicked.

[LordFerret]

You're fired.