New Horizons

[tater]

18 minutes ago, Aethon said:

Hey all.

When NH flew by Pluto/ Xaron, there was a NASA eyes on the solar system thing that you could watch realtime as the flyby was happening.  I halfheartedly looked back through the thread to see if I could find it.  Does anybody have any idea how to make that go again?  I remember it really made the flyby fun.  

Thanks

https://eyes.nasa.gov/launch2.html?document=$SERVERURL/content/documents/newhorizons/newhorizons_mu69.xml

 

Download eyes of you don't have it:

https://eyes.nasa.gov

 

[tater]

Eyes defaults to idiotic customary units. You need to go to visual controls to make it useful again.

[Piscator]

17 hours ago, Green Baron said:

It does not rotate (or only very slowly) or its pole is pointed towards New Horizons ?

These are probably the most likely scenarios, although option 1 would seem rather atypical for a body of that size (or come to think about it, it might in fact turn out to be very typical for bodies of this type; either not having much rotational momentum in the first place due to their mode of accretion or having lost much of it by evaporation).

My money would have been on "non-eclipsing binary of two uniform parts" but after seeing a visualisation of the stellar occultation data, the "non-eclipsing" part doesn't seem exactly likely anymore.

Probably more likely still than the "swarm of mini-moons" and "dust cloud" ideas, but I'd love to be wrong there.

 

[Ty Tan Tu]

18 hours ago, Piscator said:

These are probably the most likely scenarios, although option 1 would seem rather atypical for a body of that size (or come to think about it, it might in fact turn out to be very typical for bodies of this type; either not having much rotational momentum in the first place due to their mode of accretion or having lost much of it by evaporation).

My money would have been on "non-eclipsing binary of two uniform parts" but after seeing a visualisation of the stellar occultation data, the "non-eclipsing" part doesn't seem exactly likely anymore.

Probably more likely still than the "swarm of mini-moons" and "dust cloud" ideas, but I'd love to be wrong there.

 

The LORRI images from today make it look like it is shaped a bit like a kidney bean, although it is still small and blurry, so it could be a contact binary. I am starting to lean towards low rotational momentum. Given its apparent shape it seems the albedo should have changed if it was spinning.

[Ty Tan Tu]

On 12/26/2018 at 8:55 AM, DAL59 said:

have they found a post- UT target?

Not yet, but they are thinking the on board LORRI imager might even be the one to find it. They are going to use the Hubble Space Telescope, providing it stays functional, and the JWST when it is in orbit to look, but those determinations are still at least a year away.

[insert_name]

2 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

The LORRI images from today make it look like it is shaped a bit like a kidney bean, although it is still small and blurry, so it could be a contact binary. I am starting to lean towards low rotational momentum. Given its apparent shape it seems the albedo should have changed if it was spinning.

Have the earliest images been published yet? I didn't think we would see anything till tomorrow?

[cubinator]

6 minutes ago, insert_name said:

Have the earliest images been published yet? I didn't think we would see anything till tomorrow?

One page back in this thread. It's still a tiny dot. Tomorrow we might be able to see it's shape.

[DDE]

13 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

The LORRI images from today make it look like it is shaped a bit like a kidney bean, although it is still small and blurry, so it could be a contact binary. I am starting to lean towards low rotational momentum. Given its apparent shape it seems the albedo should have changed if it was spinning.

My gut still says "dust cloud".

[Ty Tan Tu]

11 hours ago, insert_name said:

Have the earliest images been published yet? I didn't think we would see anything till tomorrow?

They are really small raw images, and I think it is possible I might have mistaken a gamma ray trail for UT.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/UltimaThule-Encounter/

[tater]

This is cool.

[cubinator]

This is cool as heck, having a space probe so far out doing such a complex job and sending all the data back to Earth.

[tater]

I think the Fail Safe data is being downloaded now. This will apparently have 5km/pixel resolution. When it goes into full science mode, it will gather data, then phone home after the flyby is complete. Gotta be scary for the team (and exciting).

[cubinator]

1 minute ago, tater said:

I think the Fail Safe data is being downloaded now. This will apparently have 5km/pixel resolution. When it goes into full science mode, it will gather data, then phone home after the flyby is complete. Gotta be scary for the team (and exciting).

Must be a hell of a New Years party.  

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

This is cool as heck, having a space probe so far out doing such a complex job and sending all the data back to Earth.

What blows my mind is how the astronavigation is so accurate at such distances

[tater]

 

[ProtoJeb21]

25 minutes ago, tater said:

 

I think I can see signs that Ultima is a contact binary. It would be just as cool if it were a flatted football shape like Haumea. Also, it appears that we’re looking right down Ultima’s rotational axis, just as the NH team thought. 

[cubinator]

Please be a donut please be a donut please be a donut

[Scotius]

What are you talking about? It's clearly a banana.

[SuperFastJellyfish]

Spoiler

 

 

[Scotius]

We are not THAT unlucky. Are we? #Terrified.

[Just Jim]

I'm seriously hyped to see the first images!!! Sucks we have to wait a couple days... but still, it's only a couple more days!!! 

[DAL59]

150,000 miles and closing!

11 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

I'm seriously hyped to see the first images!!! Sucks we have to wait a couple days... but still, it's only a couple more days!!! 

With the New Horizons, they sent back a couple images early just in case.  

[Just Jim]

10 minutes ago, DAL59 said:

150,000 miles and closing!

With the New Horizons, they sent back a couple images early just in case.  

I saw a couple fuzzy ones, but I'm not sure if they're the most recent or not

[tater]

 

[ProtoJeb21]

1 hour ago, Just Jim said:

I'm seriously hyped to see the first images!!! Sucks we have to wait a couple days... but still, it's only a couple more days!!! 

Probably even less than that. Tomorrow at around 2 or 3 pm EST, we should get the first few images showing the shape and, maybe, color of Ultima Thule. We will have to wait a few days for some of the best photographs, though, but anything that gives us any insight into what this ice potato is like is welcome.