New Horizons

[Scotius]

Gentlemen, i just want to point out that Uranus satellites got named after characters of Shakespeare's plays - which i'm pretty sure were considered by some as low-brow, vulgar entertainment for masses. Discoverer of the Ceres, Piazzi at first named newly found body after king Ferdinand of Sicily. Hershel wanted to name Uranus after king George III. Naming conventions are just that - conventions. And they change with time. So, yeah - let history decide which names will stick. We have better things to comment on

[Kryten]

Actually the IAU decides which names stick.

[PB666]

Rather than fight over the relative merits of each other's taste in fiction, please get back to discussing planets and space missions and stuff.

Sciencey stuff like cultural anthropology of etymology and mythology. heh-heh.

[Robotengineer]

Actually the IAU decides which names stick.

Sadly yes. I hope they go with these names though. I am sick and tired of having every minor polynesian god getting a feature name.

[Aethon]

Tentative KBO selected as the next target for New horizons.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-team-selects-potential-kuiper-belt-flyby-target

[Robotengineer]

When is the next press conference?

[Mau]

Robotengineer said:

When is the next press conference?

I believe it to be sometime in mid-September.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Mau

[Nuke]

yea i seem to recall that the probe would be collecting particle data in more or less real time till then.

[Robotengineer]

yea i seem to recall that the probe would be collecting particle data in more or less real time till then.

It's been collecting particle data the whole time, IIRC, the dust particle experiment doesn't require a specific orientation, so it shouldn't interfere with downlink things.

[Frida Space]

First picture should come down a bit sooner than expected, around Sept. 5th. Don't know when it's going to be released.

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Just to clarify, the lossless images won't come down before mid-November, so the September images should still lossy

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Tentative KBO selected as the next target for New horizons.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-team-selects-potential-kuiper-belt-flyby-target

Also, as NASA's press release doens't mention it, New Horizons has 130 m/s of DeltaV left. The October-November burn should be 56.8 +/- 1 m/s.

[PB666]

First picture should come down a bit sooner than expected, around Sept. 5th. Don't know when it's going to be released.

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Just to clarify, the lossless images won't come down before mid-November, so the September images should still lossy

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Also, as NASA's press release doens't mention it, New Horizons has 130 m/s of DeltaV left. The October-November burn should be 56.8 +/- 1 m/s.

Well thats enough to carry it to the next star in about 200000 years.

[Aethon]

Data downlink begins tomorrow.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-spacecraft-begins-intensive-data-downlink-phase

[Frida Space]

Actually data downlink has been going on as planned throughout August (it's communicating right now on DSN Now). I guess you mean that the high speed data (images) resumes tomorrow?

[Robotengineer]

According to NASA the next LORRI raws will be published next week on the 11th.

[Frida Space]

Here they come!

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Also, TWILIGHT due to haze layers on Pluto!

Speaking of haze layers, here's a better view of them:

Speaking of hazes, here's something unrelated to them... Charon! How could we forget of her.

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My personal favorite is the second one, the "Dark Areas" closeup, because it really shows the difference between the ancient, heavily-cratered dark terrain and the young and "dynamic" glacial plain that is Spuntik Planum.

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According to Press Release, second image might show what some scientists think might be a field of dunes. Yea, dunes.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Frida Space

[Shpaget]

Very pretty pictures!

But dunes?

That implies sand and wind and/or liquid flow.

[MinimumSky5]

Speaking as someone who as had to study dunes last year in university, that certainly looks like a windblown feature! Pluto's atmosphere is thick enough to have haze layers, so maybe it has winds too, at perihelion.

[Frida Space]

A relevant quote from Bill McKinnon: "Seeing dunes on Pluto -- if that is what they are -- would be completely wild, because Pluto’s atmosphere today is so thin. Either Pluto had a thicker atmosphere in the past, or some process we haven’t figured out is at work. It’s a head-scratcher."

[Dkmdlb]

Pluto > Ceres

[lajoswinkler]

I don't see where that dude found dunes and I find such explanation stupid.

Those features look exactly like convection cells, as I was pointing out in the past. More specifically, those look like glorified, slow Rayleigh-Bénard cells.

[stupid_chris]

Very pretty pictures!

But dunes?

That implies sand and wind and/or liquid flow.

If that is the case, it might be due to solar wind actually. Dunes have also been found on Churyumov–Gerasimenko (Rosetta's comet).

[lajoswinkler]

Can someone point out those "dunes"? Either I'm not looking at the right things or...

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I did my best. It's monochrome, but the tint corresponds to NASA's released "near true color" images.

[-ctn-]

The dunes are on the second photo in Frida Space's post. The dark area near the middle of the photograph has a rocky composition near the top and dune features near the bottom.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/pics/Dark-Areas-9-10-15.jpg

What is the weight of Nitrogen particles? Or Methane particles? Is there any way to assume wind speeds by pressure and temperature?

[Frida Space]

Yes, the dunes are the black field just above that big crater in the center low of the image

AKA the lower part of the central "island"

Unfortunately I'm on my phone so I don't really know how else to describe it. I hope it's clear

[lajoswinkler]

Those don't look like dunes to me. I'm inclined to think that is a very old (hence lots of tholins) water ice glacier, with compression features.