Space Probe Launched to Pluto
Discussion
Nuclear powered and designed to visit Pluto, its moon, and the Kupier belt afterward. Nine plus year mission.
Edited to add: Scheduled to lift off....sorry! If all goes well, it will be the fastest manmade object to leave the Earth....36,000 plus MPH.
www.space.com/missionlaunches/051219_newhorizons_update.html
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=
>> Edited by jimbeaux on Tuesday 17th January 15:03
Edited to add: Scheduled to lift off....sorry! If all goes well, it will be the fastest manmade object to leave the Earth....36,000 plus MPH.
www.space.com/missionlaunches/051219_newhorizons_update.html
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=
>> Edited by jimbeaux on Tuesday 17th January 15:03
There were a number of reasons -
Pluto was God of the Underworld. It was thought appropriate that a planet on the fringes of the Solar System should be named after a God who looked after the dark, hidden depths of the afterlife.
A tenth planet had long been predicted by the eccentric millionaire astonomer, Percival Lowell. He built an observatory to search for the planet (as well as to observe his other passion, the planet Mars). Clyde Tombaugh, who discoverd Pluto in 1930, was actually observing from Lowell's observatory. The first two letters of the name "Pluto" i.e. "P" and "L", are also the initials of Percival Lowell. Lowell himself had died in 1916.
Pluto was also the name of a recently created popular Walt Disney cartoon character.
The launch is live on NASA TV NOW!
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 17th January 19:09
Pluto was God of the Underworld. It was thought appropriate that a planet on the fringes of the Solar System should be named after a God who looked after the dark, hidden depths of the afterlife.
A tenth planet had long been predicted by the eccentric millionaire astonomer, Percival Lowell. He built an observatory to search for the planet (as well as to observe his other passion, the planet Mars). Clyde Tombaugh, who discoverd Pluto in 1930, was actually observing from Lowell's observatory. The first two letters of the name "Pluto" i.e. "P" and "L", are also the initials of Percival Lowell. Lowell himself had died in 1916.
Pluto was also the name of a recently created popular Walt Disney cartoon character.
The launch is live on NASA TV NOW!
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 17th January 19:09
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.htm
Now due to launch at 19.50 UTC.
Edited: Damn....NASA TV now on the blink. I've tried
banging the top of the monitor - no effect. Maybe
it's the vertical hold.
Edited again: Better now...
>> Edited by eharding on Tuesday 17th January 20:00
Now due to launch at 19.50 UTC.
Edited: Damn....NASA TV now on the blink. I've tried
banging the top of the monitor - no effect. Maybe
it's the vertical hold.
Edited again: Better now...
>> Edited by eharding on Tuesday 17th January 20:00
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