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NEW HORIZONS to visit Pluto July 14

Makes you wonder if the shape of the heart that we know from playing cards was not discovered earlier in time before telescopes existed due to meditation. Maybe a passing by UFO took the image and dropped it off for humans and instructed us what it meant.

No, it really doesn't make us wonder that. At all.

Indeed.... :biggrin:

pluto.png

I don't see the Gamilon base.

It is on the other side, with the ice ocean and reflex gun.
 
Unfortunatly we are going to have to wait over a year (16 months) for all the data to be downloaded from New Horizons.
 
I watched the press conference this afternoon and remember it being suggested that the relatively "new" surfaces of Pluto and Charon meant that we had to rethink the geological processes taking place on these smaller solar system bodies. But isn't it just as likely that the (presumed) collision that created the Pluto/Charon system took place much more recently than thought (perhaps millions of years ago rather than billions of years ago) and could account for the dearth of craters?

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I watched the press conference this afternoon and remember it being suggested that the relatively "new" surfaces of Pluto and Charon meant that we had to rethink the geological processes taking place on these smaller solar system bodies. But isn't it just as likely that the (presumed) collision that created the Pluto/Charon system took place much more recently than thought (perhaps millions of years ago rather than billions of years ago) and could account for the dearth of craters?

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Weren't we suprised during the Voyager missions about how active the outer solar system was? i.e. capturing images of a volcano errupting on Io
 
Is it just me, or does that look like a giant hole on top of Pluto?

It'S where Nero put the Red Matter drop. :lol:

Edit: Not that it matters in space, but why is that picture flipped compared to all the others?

That photo is from the NASA site, just like it is. It's from the LORRI instrument. It's one of the last few that were sent from New Horizons before it flew through the Pluto system.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/Pluto-Encounter/index.php
 
I watched the press conference this afternoon and remember it being suggested that the relatively "new" surfaces of Pluto and Charon meant that we had to rethink the geological processes taking place on these smaller solar system bodies. But isn't it just as likely that the (presumed) collision that created the Pluto/Charon system took place much more recently than thought (perhaps millions of years ago rather than billions of years ago) and could account for the dearth of craters?
Weren't we suprised during the Voyager missions about how active the outer solar system was? i.e. capturing images of a volcano errupting on Io
If we weren't surprised about what we found it would be a waste of time and money.

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So what's this thing supposed to do next? Keep heading out to the Kuiper Belt? BEYOND?!

Probably won't get any more pretty pictures of anything for a while. :lol:
 
The Voyager and Pioneer probes have continued to send back valuable data, as well as the occasional picture. I'm sure New Horizons will do the same.
 
The Voyager and Pioneer probes have continued to send back valuable data, as well as the occasional picture. I'm sure New Horizons will do the same.

Pity that Pioneer 10 has died.... Imagine the pictures that would send from "out there." Of course it would take years to receive them...
 
So what's this thing supposed to do next? Keep heading out to the Kuiper Belt? BEYOND?!

There are two Kuiper Belt Objects that New Horizons could reach in early 2019. The team will decide next month which one they want to try for.

Probably won't get any more pretty pictures of anything for a while. :lol:

Oh, we'll be getting Pluto/Charon pictures back for the next fourteen months. That's how long it will take to transmit all the pictures back. :)

The Voyager and Pioneer probes have continued to send back valuable data, as well as the occasional picture. I'm sure New Horizons will do the same.

The cameras on the Voyager probes were shut down a long time ago. It's about prioritizing the probe's dwindling power supply. It's questionable that they would even work now after so many years exposed to the cold. I believe the "Pale Blue Dot" mosaic pictures were the last pictures sent back.

What's more interesting to me is that there aren't any computers that would understand the Voyager photos even if the probes had the power to work the cameras.
 
That's sad. I thought for sure some vintage computers were in working orders in museums. I might have Computer science taught in each grade. In the first grade, an abacus, then Napier's bones....Apple IIe..etc.

The Russians had some plans
http://sen.com/blogs/anatoly-zak/pluto-s-missing-lander
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft_small_bodies.html

The grandest:

Energia based projects
During the development of the Energia rocket, Soviet engineers considered using this super-heavy vehicle to launch unmanned planetary missions. The preliminary studies (NIRs) code-named Vselennaya ("Universe") started in 1982 and Rasplav ("Melter") conducted in 1983 conceptualized electrically propelled, nuclear-powered space probes which would head to outer planets and land on their moons. They would deliver rovers and even return soil samples from mysterious natural satellites of giant planets. However these studies did not go beyond very preliminary evaluations.

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft_planetary_plans.html

Some have called for SLS/BFR to do something similar--as per the comments section here at least.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2787/1

Similar to the Pluto orbiter concept I linked to orbiter, is this seemingly unrelated craft also spawned by SDI research--same as with Clementine:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=29354

I wonder if an atomic railgun on even a flyby spacecraft could fire a cubesat backwards at enough speed to where it would remain in orbit as the main bus moves on.
 
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