*** The Official Astronomy & Universe Thread ***

Pretty big news this as history will be made in just a short few days time when New horizons makes its closest approach to Pluto.

The BW camera has snapped the far side of Pluto now and this is the image it sent back:

EMlvPi6.jpg

This side will be in darkness during the closest approach when the colour camera will snap a much much higher resolution image. Is a shame as the far side looks more interesting with those funky surface lines.

We now have photographic proof that Pluto is indeed fully round and thus the IAU can reverse their decision to de-badge it as a 'planet'.
 
Last edited:
No craters, lots of recent geology (mountains are estimated at 100 million years old), large amounts of atmospheric escape, despite no internal energy source (no tidal friction from nearby planets), and its in a cold, presumed dead area of space.

I'll let you in to a clue, solar wind and the heliospheric environment are quite different out there (especially as pluto has a highly eccentric orbit which moves it through a constantly changing charge differential, much like a comet), you could come up with quite a few mechanisms to explain atmospheric escape and geological depositation and upheaval via. electrical and electrochemical processes.

Check out this video for some science behind the idea:

 
Last edited:
More Pluto:

In the center left of Pluto’s vast heart-shaped feature – informally named “Tombaugh Regio” - lies a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region is north of Pluto’s icy mountains and has been informally named Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite.


This animation shows how the count rate observed by New Horizons’ Alice instrument decreases as Pluto’s atmosphere passes in front of the sun. The decreasing count rate is due to the ultraviolet sunlight having to pass through progressively larger amounts of the atmosphere as the spacecraft line of sight gets closer to Pluto. The observed count rates are compared with predictions based on two plausible models of Pluto’s atmosphere: a “turbulent” case, where the expected count rate is relatively large, due to small amounts of sunlight-absorbing hydrocarbons in the lower atmosphere, and a “stagnant” case, where much larger hydrocarbon abundances are predicted. The preliminary count rate data from Alice are matched by neither model, but are closer to the stagnant case.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI



This simulated flyover of Pluto’s Norgay Montes (Norgay Mountains) and Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain) was created from New Horizons closest-approach images. Norgay Montes have been informally named for Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two humans to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Sputnik Planum is informally named for Earth’s first artificial satellite. The images were acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers). Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI


 
A new mountain range on Pluto:

hvZCmMV.jpg

A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. This image was acquired by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and sent back to Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible.

Pluto’s icy mountains have company. NASA’s New Horizons mission has discovered a new, apparently less lofty mountain range on the lower-left edge of Pluto’s best known feature, the bright, heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region).

These newly-discovered frozen peaks are estimated to be one-half mile to one mile (1-1.5 kilometers) high, about the same height as the United States’ Appalachian Mountains. The Norgay Montes (Norgay Mountains) discovered by New Horizons on July 15 more closely approximate the height of the taller Rocky Mountains.

The new range is just west of the region within Pluto’s heart called Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain). The peaks lie some 68 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Norgay Montes.

This image was acquired by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and sent back to Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible. The names of features on Pluto have all been given on an informal basis by the New Horizons team.

Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Click to expand...
 
A large kepker announcement tomorrow by nasa. Wonder what planet/planets they are going to announce.

More info and link to livestream
http://www.iflscience.com/nasa-anno...ery-kepler-tomorrow-and-you-can-watch-it-live


Anyone know what happened to the sun shade research, any telescopes planned to use them? When we going to be able to analyses atmosphere and possibly take photos of these planets, any missions planned?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom