New Horizons Mission to Pluto
Discussion
Perhaps the heating process they are unaware of. Radioactive decay perhaps.
A rocky world out where all the previous are gas giants, and this could still be a captured object and been mashed around in the past. 3:2 resonance so it might get a re working every now and then and their orbits cross I believe.
How long does such energy stay around?
A rocky world out where all the previous are gas giants, and this could still be a captured object and been mashed around in the past. 3:2 resonance so it might get a re working every now and then and their orbits cross I believe.
How long does such energy stay around?
Wake up.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-release-...
Is that a chunk of Pluto stuck in Charon?
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-release-...
Is that a chunk of Pluto stuck in Charon?
Eric Mc said:
Pluto has a very eccentric orbit so must experience temperature variances in its 247 year passage around the sun.
-223C to -233C temp range which is enough for some frozen gasses to sublimate and re-freeze. I'd assumed it's be so cold it's effectively inert! Every day's a school day!Fascinating stuff. Could its interaction with Neptune's orbit have anything to do with the potential surface activity? Given its eccentric orbit, is it possible something else has interacted with it in recent cosmological history? Not a "planet X" sort of thing, but perhaps another reasonably big Kuiper Belt object that's since wobbled out of the Solar System?
Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
I would be looking at the instruments and the descriptions of their operations.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload...
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload...
e.g.
LORRI
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload...
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload...
e.g.
LORRI
NASA link said:
Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)
Mass: 8.8 kilograms (19.4 pounds)
Average Power: 5.8 watts
Development: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Andy Cheng, Applied Physics Laboratory
Purpose: Study geology; provide high-resolution approach and highest-resolution encounter images
LORRI, the “eagle eyes” of New Horizons, is a panchromatic high-magnification imager, consisting of a telescope with an 8.2-inch (20.8-centimeter) aperture that focuses visible light onto a charge-coupled device (CCD). It’s essentially a digital camera with a large telephoto telescope – only fortified to operate in the cold, hostile environs near Pluto.
During the encounter, LORRI images will be New Horizons' first of the Pluto system, starting about 180 days before closest approach. Pluto and its moons still resemble little more than bright dots, but these system-wide views will help navigators keep the spacecraft on course and help scientists refine their orbit calculations of Pluto and its moons. Approximately 60 days before closest approach – around mid-May 2015 – LORRI images will surpass Hubble-quality resolution, providing never-before-seen details each day. At closest approach, LORRI will image select sections of Pluto's sunlit surface at football-field-size resolution, resolving features at about 50 meters across.
This range of images will give scientists an unprecedented look at the geology on Pluto and its moons– including the number and size of craters on each surface, revealing the history of impacting objects in that distant region. LORRI will also yield important information on the history of Pluto’s surface, search for activity such as geysers on that surface, and look for hazes in Pluto’s atmosphere. LORRI will also provide the highest resolution images of any Kuiper Belt Objects New Horizons would fly by in an extended mission, should NASA approve one.
LORRI has no color filters or moving parts – operators take images by pointing the LORRI side of the spacecraft directly at their target. The instrument’s innovative silicon carbide construction keeps its mirrors focused through the extreme temperature dips New Horizons experiences on the way to, through, and past the Pluto system.
Mass: 8.8 kilograms (19.4 pounds)
Average Power: 5.8 watts
Development: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Andy Cheng, Applied Physics Laboratory
Purpose: Study geology; provide high-resolution approach and highest-resolution encounter images
LORRI, the “eagle eyes” of New Horizons, is a panchromatic high-magnification imager, consisting of a telescope with an 8.2-inch (20.8-centimeter) aperture that focuses visible light onto a charge-coupled device (CCD). It’s essentially a digital camera with a large telephoto telescope – only fortified to operate in the cold, hostile environs near Pluto.
During the encounter, LORRI images will be New Horizons' first of the Pluto system, starting about 180 days before closest approach. Pluto and its moons still resemble little more than bright dots, but these system-wide views will help navigators keep the spacecraft on course and help scientists refine their orbit calculations of Pluto and its moons. Approximately 60 days before closest approach – around mid-May 2015 – LORRI images will surpass Hubble-quality resolution, providing never-before-seen details each day. At closest approach, LORRI will image select sections of Pluto's sunlit surface at football-field-size resolution, resolving features at about 50 meters across.
This range of images will give scientists an unprecedented look at the geology on Pluto and its moons– including the number and size of craters on each surface, revealing the history of impacting objects in that distant region. LORRI will also yield important information on the history of Pluto’s surface, search for activity such as geysers on that surface, and look for hazes in Pluto’s atmosphere. LORRI will also provide the highest resolution images of any Kuiper Belt Objects New Horizons would fly by in an extended mission, should NASA approve one.
LORRI has no color filters or moving parts – operators take images by pointing the LORRI side of the spacecraft directly at their target. The instrument’s innovative silicon carbide construction keeps its mirrors focused through the extreme temperature dips New Horizons experiences on the way to, through, and past the Pluto system.
Edited by jmorgan on Friday 17th July 13:28
hornet said:
Fascinating stuff. Could its interaction with Neptune's orbit have anything to do with the potential surface activity? Given its eccentric orbit, is it possible something else has interacted with it in recent cosmological history? Not a "planet X" sort of thing, but perhaps another reasonably big Kuiper Belt object that's since wobbled out of the Solar System?
Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
Sort of, im not to hot on the subject, but I do know that 2 'photographic sensors' on new horizon (alice and ralph) aren't standard visible wavelength CCDs they are far more complex than that and the images have post production take place on them before being released to the public.Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
hornet said:
Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
It's a VERY sensitive camera, you can take photos on Earth just using starlight with a normal camera with a tiny lens so I'm not sure why it's such a big deal taking one in space with a relatively big (20cm across) lens. hornet said:
Fascinating stuff. Could its interaction with Neptune's orbit have anything to do with the potential surface activity? Given its eccentric orbit, is it possible something else has interacted with it in recent cosmological history? Not a "planet X" sort of thing, but perhaps another reasonably big Kuiper Belt object that's since wobbled out of the Solar System?
Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
If it that duark out there, how did Clyde Tombaugh see it from earth in 1930?Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
hornet said:
Another question - given there are already people on Twitter calling this a hoax "because not enough light reaches Pluto and Charon to cast those shadows", how much of what we're seeing is false colour? I know New Horizons has UV and infrared instruments on board, so are we seeing images from those "converted" to visible light?
Any amount of light can cast shadows. How bright the image appears when it's recorded is a function of the sensitivity of the recording medium, the aperture and the exposure length.People making comments like this on twitter clearly know nothing about photography.
Some of the images are B&W, some are termed "false colour" if they add additional enhancement to bring out detail or use colours mapped differently to the standard RGB colour gamut (i.e. by displaying data that would appear to the human eye as red - as green instead. Hubble images frequently use this type of method - google "hubble palette"). Some images will be rendered as a close approximation to what the human eye would see.
I guess you could say that any photograph using CCD/CMOS or even film is technically "false colour" - since the recording medium can only approximate what the human eye sees and different recording medium will render the colour slightly differently. Hell - even the method of viewing and how well that viewer is calibrated can have a huge effect to how the final image looks.
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