Pluto - We're Almost There!!

[Principled Man]

The New Horizons spacecraft is almost there! After a 3 BILLION mile journey, the probe is just about at its destination.

 

With about 4 million miles to go, July 14th will be its closest approach.

 

Pluto and its largest moon, Charon:

 

 

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/unclemonteee/pluto_charon_color_final_zpsjgystifj.png

 

 

:haz: :haz: :haz:

 

 

http://www.nasa.gov/

Edited July 10, 2015 by Principled Man

[Merely Space]

This is very exciting. I wonder if it will find anything beyond.

[Principled Man]

I have many good memories from my youth, when I was learning about the solar system. Back in the 60's, we knew next to nothing about the outer planets, as all we had was the not-so-sharp images from the crude telescopes of the day. Pluto was nothing more than a white dot, which we knew was moving only because we could measure its change of position in photographs.

 

Pluto was, to coin a phrase, veiled in mystery. All the textbooks, encyclopedias, and popular picture books for sale depicted Pluto as a cold, dark, haunted world, with a tiny Sun appearing in its skies as a large dot of light. And yet, we found such a foreboding place immensely seductive. We wanted to GO there.....:ebert:

[Tombstone Mountain]

I gotta thank Crimsonmistymeory for keeping me updated on this...he's been feeding me these updates.

 

How exciting that we are seeing this tiny orb (remember it's not a planet right, or is it?) so well know. What really blows me away is how it was discovered:

 

Discovery

Further information: Planets beyond Neptune

In the 1840s, Urbain Le Verrier used Newtonian mechanics to predict the position of the then-undiscovered planetNeptune after analysing perturbations in the orbit of Uranus.^[29] Subsequent observations of Neptune in the late 19th century led astronomers to speculate that Uranus's orbit was being disturbed by another planet besides Neptune.

In 1906, Percival Lowell—a wealthy Bostonian who had founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894—started an extensive project in search of a possible ninth planet, which he termed "Planet X".^[30] By 1909, Lowell andWilliam H. Pickering had suggested several possible celestial coordinates for such a planet.^[31] Lowell and his observatory conducted his search until his death in 1916, but to no avail. Unknown to Lowell, on 19 March 1915, surveys had captured two faint images of Pluto, but they were not recognized for what they were.^[31][32] There are fifteen other known prediscoveries, with the oldest made by the Yerkes Observatory on 20 August 1909.^[33]

 

Discovery photographs of Pluto

Because of a ten-year legal battle with Constance Lowell, Percival's widow, who attempted to wrest the observatory's million-dollar portion of his legacy for herself, the search for Planet X did not resume until 1929,^[34] when its director, Vesto Melvin Slipher, summarily handed the job of locating Planet X to Clyde Tombaugh, a 23-year-old Kansanwho had just arrived at the Lowell Observatory after Slipher had been impressed by a sample of his astronomical drawings.^[34]

Tombaugh's task was to systematically image the night sky in pairs of photographs, then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. Using a blink comparator, he rapidly shifted back and forth between views of each of the plates to create the illusion of movement of any objects that had changed position or appearance between photographs. On 18 February 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on 23 and 29 January of that year. A lesser-quality photograph taken on 21 January helped confirm the movement.^[35] After the observatory obtained further confirmatory photographs, news of the discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory on 13 March 1930.^[31

Question: How in the heck did scientists look at this image and say "Yep--that's a planet right there!"

[Merely Space]

And in another 3-4 years, it will (hopefully) be investigating objects in the Kuiper Belt!

[Union 5-3992]

Interesting that within a Plutonian year, it was deemed a planet, then revoked of its status

[furie]

have they been able to determine if pluto and charon are tidally locked?

[Crimsonmistymemory]

I learned two fascinating things yesterday.

1- IF one was to stand on the surface of Pluto Charon would look 3 times bigger than our moon looks in the sky.

2- Considering Pluto and Charon are binary and share the same center of gravity and are akin to two ice skaters in a tandom spin. If one was on the Charon facing hemisphere, Charon would always be in veiw. but if one was on the opposite hemisphere Charon would never be in view. So in essence pluto is divided into blinded hemespheres.

 

I know some of y'all have already seen this message I thought now that this subject matter is an "official" post I would throw it out there for the genral TRF alumni.

Thank you TM for the shout out! Maybe the Yukon Blade Grinder can do article regarding the unprecednted science yet to come in the next few daze, in the awesome fashion that the YBG has become.

 

Edit; Me classic mis-spelling :D-13:

Edited July 11, 2015 by Crimsonmistymemory

[Tombstone Mountain]

Thank you TM for the shout out! Maybe the Yukon Blade Grinder can do article regarding the unprecedented science yet to come in the next few daze, in the awesome fashion that the YBG has become.

Keep smoking that dope buddy...maybe I can do something. Gotta check with corporate. You know how that goes

Edited July 11, 2015 by Tombstone Mountain

[Crimsonmistymemory]

well ok if you insist :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :d13: :d13: :d13: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :o :smoke: :d13: :P :pussy: :7up: :7up: :7up: :rush: :smoke: :smoke: :d13: :givebeer: ;) :P

Edited July 11, 2015 by Crimsonmistymemory

[Tombstone Mountain]

well ok if you insist :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :d13: :d13: :d13: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :o :smoke: :d13: :P :pussy: :7up: :7up: :7up: :rush: :smoke: :smoke: :d13: :givebeer: ;) :P

All of this^^^^makes total sense bro!

 

I get you!

[Crimsonmistymemory]

well ok if you insist :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :d13: :d13: :d13: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :o :smoke: :d13: :P :pussy: :7up: :7up: :7up: :rush: :smoke: :smoke: :d13: :givebeer: ;) :P

All of this^^^^makes total sense bro!

 

I get you!

I knew if there was any one entity in this universe (possible multiverse) that would understand, it would be you! Thank you my brother from another mother :codger:

Edited July 11, 2015 by Crimsonmistymemory

[Principled Man]

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-7-10-15_pluto_image_nasa-jhuapl-swri_0.png

 

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/mh-07-10-15_puto_image_annotated.jpg

[furie]

tomorrow's the day

[Merely Space]

Happy Fly-By!

[x1yyz]

So apparently we flew within 8000 miles of Pluto this morning. That's closer than Asia is to me! I can't wait to see the photos tonight.

[EagleMoon]

This is pretty exciting. Can't wait to see what the pics look like.

[KennyLee]

I'm also digging this. So thankful there are smarter people than me on this planet. :D

[Tombstone Mountain]

So cool. I hope the pics are amazing. Wonder why we can't get great shots with Hubble?

[HemiBeers]

I just happy when I discover where I left my keys.

[Principled Man]

So cool. I hope the pics are amazing. Wonder why we can't get great shots with Hubble?

 

Hubble is a bit far-sighted. It's purpose is mainly to study the universe outside of our system, so any pictures it takes of our system aren't all that great.

 

And Pluto is really small and dark. It's smaller than our moon. It's not telescope-friendly.....

[Principled Man]

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/tn-p_lorri_fullframe_color.png

[Lost In Xanadu]

We're so there!

 

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7uM5puvES98/hqdefault.jpg

[Union 5-3992]

http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2014-07/24/10/enhanced/webdr02/anigif_enhanced-buzz-8492-1406211576-5.gif

[Merely Space]

Now I want fly-by pics. Hurry, APL!