New Horizons flyby of Pluto [updated for Ultima Thule]

[DennisN]

NASA’s New Horizons Finds Second Mountain Range in Pluto’s ‘Heart’ (source: here)

This newest image further illustrates the remarkably well-defined topography along the western edge of Tombaugh Regio.

“There is a pronounced difference in texture between the younger, frozen plains to the east and the dark, heavily-cratered terrain to the west,” said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging Team (GGI) at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “There’s a complex interaction going on between the bright and the dark materials that we’re still trying to understand.”

While Sputnik Planum is believed to be relatively young in geological terms – perhaps less than 100 million years old - the darker region probably dates back billions of years. Moore notes that the bright, sediment-like material appears to be filling in old craters (for example, the bright circular feature to the lower left of center).

 

[Dotini]

"...a catastrophic impact between what are now Pluto and Charon could have created a subsurface ocean. That ocean could be the driving force behind icy tectonics, an idea explored by planetary geophysicists http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amy_Barr_Mlinar and http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Geoffrey_Collins in a paper published last year."

Enceladus has a ridiculously hot pole, and we still can’t explain why. Image credit: NASA
http://space.io9.com/could-a-massive-collision-produce-a-subsurface-ocean-on-1719439790

 

[rootone]

NASA released some new images today.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2015/jul/24/pluto-news-nasa-photographs

 

[DaveC426913]

Wait! That's not a heart!

Spoiler: Oh NOOZZ! It's...

PLANET X!

 

[OmCheeto]

NASA released some new images today.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2015/jul/24/pluto-news-nasa-photographs

Umm... In the future, could you please describe such things as:

"OH MY FREAKIN' GOD! NASA RELEASED SOME FREAKIN' AWESOME PICTURES TODAY!"

Thanks!

 

[diogenesNY]

Wait! That's not a heart!

"Oh NOOZZ! It's..."] [deleted spoiler content] !

So, does this mean that we have discovered the source of the _Shaving Cream Atom_?
:)

diogenesNY

 

[B1948J]

But you can! I've given you everything you need to know about the imaging system to do so. (I think I have at least)

Yes Drakkith, I think all that would be useful if one knew the exact time and date of the photo, could calculate the orbits and trajectories of Pluto and Charon and knew the spatial positioning between the two and New Horizons. Since Charon and Pluto orbit each other in binary fashion and New Horizons could be at just about any angle to the two, I'm thinking it's probably not a mental calculation. ;) The common-sense answers provided within this thread provided me with my "duh!" moments - especially the one about crashing into Pluto at 36,000 mph.

 

[DennisN]

Some more eye candy/maps (for some reason I could not post any thumbnail images in most of the cases, so you have to click on the links to see the images):

• http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=254
• http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=252
• Global Map of Pluto's Moon Charon
• Informal Names for Features on Pluto*
• Informal Names for Features on Pluto’s Sputnik Planum*
  
• Informal Names for Features on Pluto’s Moon Charon*

* From the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Images/index.php: "Names have not yet been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU)".

• PIA19697: The 'Other' Red Planet (Animation), source: here.

Edit: I don't remember seeing this one before in the thread:

• 'Capturing' Nix and Hydra (moons of Pluto)

 

[DennisN]

Not Pluto, but beyond...far beyond...
NASA’s New Horizons Team Selects Potential Kuiper Belt Flyby Target (NASA)

NASA has selected the potential next destination for the New Horizons mission to visit after its historic July 14 flyby of the Pluto system. The destination is a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69 that orbits nearly a billion miles beyond Pluto.

 

[nsaspook]

High-res images are starting to come in and be released.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-pluto-images-from-nasa-s-new-horizons-it-s-complicated

 

[DennisN]

A couple of black-and-white, yet awesome (I can't find a better word than "awesome") photos here:

Source: Pluto ‘Wows’ in Spectacular New Backlit Panorama (September 17, 2015) from http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Quote: Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon". A bigger picture is here.

A bigger picture is here.

 

[nsaspook]

Wow!

 

[Borg]

The second one is featured in today's APOD. Really looks like a forbidding place.

 

[mfb]

Too bad the probe didn't have the necessary delta-v to enter an orbit...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

A couple of black-and-white, yet awesome (I can't find a better word than "awesome") photos

Really magical! Just mind blowing!

 

[Janus]

Too bad the probe didn't have the necessary delta-v to enter an orbit...

If I remember right, it was moving with a relative speed of ~13 km/s relative to Pluto during the fly by. So it would have had to be carrying something like 17 times the probe's own mass in fuel for that much delta-v. But that would mean that the booster launching it to Pluto would have had that many times more fuel also.

 

[Lord Crc]

But that would mean that the booster launching it to Pluto would have had that many times more fuel also.

No problem! Just attach several dozen SRB's on the thing!

 

[mfb]

If I remember right, it was moving with a relative speed of ~13 km/s relative to Pluto during the fly by. So it would have had to be carrying something like 17 times the probe's own mass in fuel for that much delta-v. But that would mean that the booster launching it to Pluto would have had that many times more fuel also.

Well, the mission would have been planned differently.
Dawn achieved over 10 km/s delta-v with 425 kg of xenon for 625 kg of dry mass. Solar cells are impractical for a probe to Pluto, but a large RTG or a small nuclear reactor (or something subcritical in between) could work. Leave Earth with chemical rockets, accelerate with fly-bys, drift for a while, then use the ion drive to slow down. More expensive, needs more R&D, takes longer to reach Pluto, but certainly not impossible.

 

[Janus]

Well, the mission would have been planned differently.
Dawn achieved over 10 km/s delta-v with 425 kg of xenon for 625 kg of dry mass. Solar cells are impractical for a probe to Pluto, but a large RTG or a small nuclear reactor (or something subcritical in between) could work. Leave Earth with chemical rockets, accelerate with fly-bys, drift for a while, then use the ion drive to slow down. More expensive, needs more R&D, takes longer to reach Pluto, but certainly not impossible.

Not impossible, no. You could likely get to Pluto and park in orbit with the delta-v budget of the present mission and chemical rockets alone, but at the cost of increasing the length of the mission immensely. A 13 km/s delta-v with a Dawn type engine would require a reaction mass of roughly equal to that of the dry mass. So you would be doubling the mass of the probe (not counting the additional mass of the power source). So for the same Earth relative launch velocity you need to double the fuel.

If you are going to use the same launch vehicle, then you are going to halve your Earth-relative velocity with the subsequent increase in Earth to Pluto travel time. (though to be fair, if you decrease the Initial delta-v, you are also going to reduce the "fly-by" velocity upon reaching Pluto, which in turn reduces the delta-v needed to match Pluto's orbital velocity and decreases the mass of the probe, which effects the available delta-v upon leaving Earth.. The final result would have to take in the balancing out of all this.)

So, let's assume we have worked all this out. Now the next question is, will the benefits outweigh the extra costs? How much more data do we get by leaving the probe in orbit? Because of the distance, New Horizons can only transmit its collected data back to Earth at a slow bit rate and as a result, the data collected during the several hr flyby will take 16 months to transmit back to Earth. So you would end up with a situation of the probe collecting several hours of data, spending 16 months sending that data back, collecting another several hrs of data... Since the power source on the probe is presently expected to last until 2030, you might expect to get 11 cycles of this over the life time of the craft.( likely less, since we are assuming a longer trip time, some of the lifetime of the power source will be used up during the trip)

So, in the end you might end up with a couple of hundred hrs of data collected in all. Factoring in all the extra expense for the mission, is it worth it? Now for many of us, the answer would be yes, however, generally speaking, we are not the ones holding the purse strings, and the difference between what type of mission we might ultimately want and the one we get is what Congress will provide the funds for.

 

[nsaspook]

More WOW in color.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

 

[diogenesNY]

That is just about so freaking cool...

Um... I want to go... ya, there...

diogenesNY

 

[DennisN]

And more WOW in color :
Source: Perplexing Pluto: New ‘Snakeskin’ Image and More from New Horizons (Sept. 24, 2015)

 

[DennisN]

Pluto, Charon and moons update:

1) A nice article with pictures and a video clip:
Pluto’s Big Moon Charon Reveals a Colorful and Violent History (NASA, Oct 1, 2015)

Image: Charon in enhanced color.

2. And another article with pictures, some analysis information and a video clip:
Four Months after Pluto Flyby, NASA’s New Horizons Yields Wealth of Discovery (NASA, Nov 9, 2015)

Video clip, "Pluto's Spinning Moons":

 

[nsaspook]

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-returns-first-of-the-best-images-of-pluto

 

[Imager]

This enhanced color mosaic combines some of the sharpest views of Pluto that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft obtained during its July 14 flyby. The pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel – revealing features smaller than half a city block on Pluto’s surface. Lower resolution color data (at about 2,066 feet, or 630 meters, per pixel) were added to create this new image.

Link:http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-close-up-now-in-color

 

[DaveC426913]

What would my 10-year-old self make of this?

This is what Pluto was to us for decades:

 

[Drakkith]

What would my 10-year-old self make of this?

Did your ten-year-old self exist when that picture was taken?

 

[DaveC426913]

Did your ten-year-old self exist when that picture was taken?

I was unable to find any 40 year old pictures of Pluto, which would have been no more than an artist's impression of a featureless ball.

Danged internet. Why can't it show me stuff from the 70s? There should be a 'time' filter.

 

[OmCheeto]

I was unable to find any 40 year old pictures of Pluto, which would have been no more than an artist's impression of a featureless ball.

Danged internet. Why can't it show me stuff from the 70s? There should be a 'time' filter.

This is why I keep old books around.

From my 1990 edition of the Encyclopædia Brittanica, which is coincidentally the same year Hubble was launched;

Solar System
THE SURFACES OF THE PLANET AND ITS SATELLITE [Volume 27, page 575]
Because the telescopic image of Pluto is generally indistinguishable from that of a faint star, all efforts made by the early 1980s to detect surface features by conventional methods were unsuccessful. That the surface is not uniform has been known since 1955, when M.F Walker and R.H. Hardie at the Lowell Observatory found that the brightness of the planet varied regularly by about 12 percent within a period of 6.39 days.

There were only two pages devoted to Pluto, at that point.

Ha! The following is EVERYTHING written about the Hubble Space Telescope in that edition;

Exploration
SPACE PROGRAMS [Volume 29, page 49]
The most powerful orbiting observatory currently under construction is the Hubble Space Telescope. Its 2.4-meter-wide reflector telescope is designed to observe objects one-fiftieth as bright as those that can be seen with present Earth-based telescopes and its resolution will be at least 10 times higher.

hmmm... <google google google>

Thank god JPL keeps their old images up:

IMAGES | MARCH 28, 1998
Hubble Portrait of the "Double Planet" Pluto & Charon

 

[DaveC426913]

Thank god JPL keeps their old images up:

Yah, I found that one too. Still decades after my formative years.