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OT: Countdown to Pluto (7 days)

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  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,847

    ...so what are all the trails leading to (from?) it?

  • SlimerJSpudSlimerJSpud Posts: 1,456
    LeatherGryphon said:
    StratDragon said:

    It looks like Klingon Bird of Prey crashed into the surface.

    Shhhh..., it's supposed to be a secret. surprise

    I think I see a couple of hitchhikers down there beaming for a ride...

     

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084

    It's been another few weeks and some conclusions are being formed about the surface of Pluto.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/plutos-heart-filled-poison-fly-shows-n445446

    "Pluto's distinctive heart-shaped sea is filled with ice that would be poisonous to people, astronomers said Thursday -- made up of frozen carbon monoxide and methane.

    But elsewhere, huge mountains of water ice float in a nitrogen sea. And water ice makes up the bedrock of the distant minor planet, they reported.

    And Pluto itself appears to still be alive, with active processes, including perhaps the swirling of liquid seas below its rugged surface, constantly re-shaping the top layers."

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,414
    edited October 2015
    kyoto kid said:

    ...so what are all the trails leading to (from?) it?

    Hmm, "pressure ridges"? Like these from the north (Not Antarctica), possible. The bubble like structures in that pic from Pluto may be a crashed ship, or just something just oozed out between the cracks on the surface.

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  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,414

    OT, and also on the same OT.

    KBO 2014 MU69, almost in the path. A few maneuvers already completed, another in a few days. Of course, the pictures will pend NASA's approval of the extended mission. hmmm.

    Earlier in the mission, were they not worried that if the didn't change course, there was a possibility the craft would plow into the KBO at around 32,000MPH. We are not building launch pads, building rockets, or launching a new craft. We are practically already there, I say take the pictures, lol.

    http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151029

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    ZarconDeeGrissom said:

    OT, and also on the same OT.

    KBO 2014 MU69, almost in the path. A few maneuvers already completed, another in a few days. Of course, the pictures will pend NASA's approval of the extended mission. hmmm.

    Earlier in the mission, were they not worried that if the didn't change course, there was a possibility the craft would plow into the KBO at around 32,000MPH. We are not building launch pads, building rockets, or launching a new craft. We are practically already there, I say take the pictures, lol.

    http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151029

    OK, I've put it on my calendar.  January 1, 2019 yes

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084

    Volcanoes on Pluto

    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34771168

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,414
    edited November 2015
    LeatherGryphon said:

    Volcanoes on Pluto

    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34771168

    First glance of the Photo at the top of the page.

    There are mud-volcanoes on the bottom of the ocean that kind of look like that. So yea, Wright Mons is absolutely something, and I don't Think it is just a 'geiser'.

    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084

    More even-more detailed photos of Pluto.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/nasa-releases-first-new-horizons-most-detailed-pictures-pluto-n474611

  • nDelphinDelphi Posts: 1,920
    edited December 2015

    What has intrigued me the most is the blue sky. I think I read somewhere that if you were standing on the surface and looked up at the sky it would be blue? Is that true?

    Oops. Nevermind, I found an answer to my question:

    Technically, what we're seeing here isn't really a blue sky. Pluto's atmosphere is so thin that if you were standing on the surface looking up, you'd just see the blackness of space above your head. However, just as someone standing on the Moon during a lunar eclipse would see all of Earth's sunsets at once, creating a red glow around the planet, New Horizons is capturing all of Pluto's sunsets at once.

    Post edited by nDelphi on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    edited December 2015

    "Oh my God, it's full of holes!" (paraphrase "2001")

    "Now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall" Beatles: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band"

    "Through the Sea of Holes into the Sea of Green"  Beatles: "Yellow Submarine"

    http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/oh-pits-thousands-holes-dot-plutos-surface-close-shot-n478081

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,414
    edited December 2015

    Funny thing. Every now and then, you see something that you just "have to" drop into you favorite CG program to see it from different angles, or just to 'Fly around', lol.

    Yea, that didn't work all that well. Doesn't GIMP have a "Bump map" thing, lets try that.

    H'mmm. It still has to many 'White spots' from the cross lighting. The only way I was able to tame all the rouge spikes, was to put a ten-pixel blur on the map in GIMP.

    Unfortunately even with that 'Blur' and that Bump map feature, even the best 'Cross lighting maps', just are not all that useful for some things. Caloris Planitia on Mercury (ball on left) is just completely lost without the diffuse color map. However, what about Pluto and Charon (thanks Steve Albers for making the color maps). Well Pluto and Charon on the right again just don't look quite right using GIMP's Bump map thing for making a Displacement map of the 'Planets' (or Whatever you wan't to call them).  Taking a Cross lighting photo, and turning it into a Viable "Displacement map" has got to be the most difficult thing, if not impossible (I've been trying for over a year now with Mercury's global maps, it dose not work).

    vs with 10 pixel blur

    I'm leaning heavily towards "It just can not be done" at this point.

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  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 10,304
    edited April 2016

    It is been quite a while. Are there any new images available?

    For the younger people here, there is another exciting possibility on the horizon, as announced here:

    LIVE: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner to announce space exploration initiative “Starshot”

     

    Post edited by Artini on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    edited April 2016

    Very cool information about tiny superfast spacecraft! surpriseyes  (20% of light speed within minutes!!!)

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    Artini said:

    It is been quite a while. Are there any new images available?

    Lots of new ones at the New Horizons image gallery. Weird terrain on Pluto, methane snow, a possible ancient ocean on the moon Charon... we'll be seeing mindboggling new data for months yet, it'll take a while to get the last of it sent down to Earth.

    Artini said:

    For the younger people here, there is another exciting possibility on the horizon, as announced here:

    LIVE: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner to announce space exploration initiative “Starshot”

    Interesting. Reminds me of Robert Forward's "Starwisp" concept from 30-odd years ago, except now we have a better idea of what sort of technologies we'll need to invent to make it possible.

  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 10,304

    They also mention the other possible applications, like travelling to Pluto in 3 days.

    The only problem is the speed - the vehicle could not slow down by itself,

    so the flyby through Alpha Centauri will last only for 1 hour (after 20+ years to fly to it).

    The other cool thing will be the images itself - planets will not be of circular shape,

    but rather elliptical due to the relativity effects.

    Big challenge is in developing electronics, that survive 1600 g of acceleration and particle dust in the interstellar space.

     

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    Artini said:

    They also mention the other possible applications, like travelling to Pluto in 3 days.

    The only problem is the speed - the vehicle could not slow down by itself,

    so the flyby through Alpha Centauri will last only for 1 hour (after 20+ years to fly to it).

    The other cool thing will be the images itself - planets will not be of circular shape,

    but rather elliptical due to the relativity effects.

    Big challenge is in developing electronics, that survive 1600 g of acceleration and particle dust in the interstellar space.

     

    But a train of many tiny craft could be sent and each craft could take different measurements.    So a "flyby" could be planned to take weeks or months of individual 1 hour flybys separated by a few hours or days.  Also with an entire squad of perhaps 50 craft you could increase the probability that at least some of them would survive the trip.

    The relativity effects would be measureable but rather small.  Most relativity effects are not noticeable by human eyes until you get over 90% of the speed of light.

  • ArtiniArtini Posts: 10,304
    edited April 2016

    Thanks for the further explanation of relativity effects. Anyhow I am really excited about possibility of such voyages.

    Time to dig up of available images of Alpha Centauri and make some renders.

     

    Post edited by Artini on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084

    Pluto & family still has some surprises.  Big canyon on the moon Charon.

    http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-super-grand-canyon-on-pluto-s-moon-charon

  • alexhcowleyalexhcowley Posts: 2,403
    LeatherGryphon said:

    Pluto & family still has some surprises.  Big canyon on the moon Charon.

    http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-super-grand-canyon-on-pluto-s-moon-charon

    That is one impressive piece of geography. Thanks for the link.

    Cheers,

    Alex.

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084

    Last bit of Pluto flyby data finally received on Earth. 

    http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-returns-last-bits-of-2015-flyby-data-to-earth

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,847

    ...over five hours for signals to reach home that's quite a long time.

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,722

    So maybe Pluto is the rock core of a former gas giant?

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    edited October 2016
    kyoto kid said:

    ...over five hours for signals to reach home that's quite a long time.

    Considering that no event affects another event any faster than the speed of light, and considering the immensity and vast distances between objects in space (which is where events take place) the speed of light is like ripples in a bowl of pudding miles across.  Speed of light is really a slowpoke!

     

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,847

    ...we need Subspace Communications. ;-)

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited October 2016
    nonesuch00 said:

    So maybe Pluto is the rock core of a former gas giant?

    Slightly but not very likely. Remember that the planets' orbits were a bit unstable way back in the early days; all the gas and ice giants formed closer in than their current positions, perhaps round about where the asteroid belt is now. And Pluto appears to be only one of a whole family of Pluto-like objects that have always been quite far out.

    Unlikely in another way; if the giant planets have rocky cores (one of the questions the Juno probe might be able to answer) then they'll be big — much bigger than Pluto, and likely several times bigger than the Earth (anything much smaller wouldn't have formed as a gas giant in the first place). Besides, Pluto isn't really all that rocky. It does have a rocky core itself, but there's a lot of ice in the mix; if you look at the New Horizons photos, all the mountain ranges aren't rock, they're mostly water ice.

    As for losing the outer layers and leaving only a core, that is actually possible. It nearly happened to the Earth; if the collision theory of the Moon's formation is correct, if the colliding planetoid had been much bigger, it could have stripped all the outer layers off the Earth instead of the big chunk that went on to form the Moon. There is evidence beginning to emerge that it might have actually happened to Mercury; its makeup shows a suspiciously large core and unusually thin outer layers.

    Post edited by SpottedKitty on
  • alexhcowleyalexhcowley Posts: 2,403
    SpottedKitty said:
    nonesuch00 said:

    So maybe Pluto is the rock core of a former gas giant?

    Slightly but not very likely. Remember that the planets' orbits were a bit unstable way back in the early days; all the gas and ice giants formed closer in than their current positions, perhaps round about where the asteroid belt is now. And Pluto appears to be only one of a whole family of Pluto-like objects that have always been quite far out.

    Unlikely in another way; if the giant planets have rocky cores (one of the questions the Juno probe might be able to answer) then they'll be big — much bigger than Pluto, and likely several times bigger than the Earth (anything much smaller wouldn't have formed as a gas giant in the first place). Besides, Pluto isn't really all that rocky. It does have a rocky core itself, but there's a lot of ice in the mix; if you look at the New Horizons photos, all the mountain ranges aren't rock, they're mostly water ice.

    As for losing the outer layers and leaving only a core, that is actually possible. It nearly happened to the Earth; if the collision theory of the Moon's formation is correct, if the colliding planetoid had been much bigger, it could have stripped all the outer layers off the Earth instead of the big chunk that went on to form the Moon. There is evidence beginning to emerge that it might have actually happened to Mercury; its makeup shows a suspiciously large core and unusually thin outer layers.

    Also, gas giants tend not to have rocky cores anyway.  The core of Jupiter is believed to be solid, metalic hydrogen.

    Cheers,

    Alex.

  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    edited October 2016
    kyoto kid said:

    ...we need Subspace Communications. ;-)

    We already have that.  Had it for years.  It's the intercom on submarines.  You see it in all the WWII submarine movies. devil

     

    And as for the cores of heavenly bodies.  Solid hydrogen metal is OK, but I prefer the cores of dead stars that were too small to continue fusing past the carbon stage.  Solid carbon hundreds if not thousands of miles in diameter.  Diamonds in the sky! cool  Even Liz Taylor would be satisfied!

     

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084
    edited July 2017

    Cool new flyover movies of Pluto and Charon constructed from in depth analysis of final data received last year.  (hard to believe this is the 2nd anniversary of the flyby! surprise)

    https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

    Post edited by LeatherGryphon on
  • LeatherGryphonLeatherGryphon Posts: 12,084

    Skyscraper tall blades of frozen methane on Pluto.  Cool! yes

    https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/solving-the-mystery-of-pluto-s-giant-blades-of-ice

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