Beyond Pluto

[Cypress]

A New Year's space voyage to the end of the world

New Year countdowns are always special but, for space enthusiasts, the arrival of 2019 will usher in something truly memorable. At 05:33 GMT on January 1, the New Horizons spacecraft will reach the most distant object ever visited in the solar system.

The bullseye is a 20-mile-wide lump of rock that lies 4bn miles beyond Earth and orbits the Sun roughly once every 300 years. Spacecraft and rock will come within 2,200 miles of each other, a historic face-off that should deliver a treasure trove of data and images from the edge of our solar system. The rock, discovered in 2014 by the Hubble Space Telescope, is nicknamed Ultima Thule, meaning “beyond the known world”. It resides, in temperatures close to absolute zero, in the Kuiper belt.

This band of objects begins at Neptune, at around 30 AU (1 AU, or astronomical unit, is the distance from the Earth to the Sun), and stretches to at least 50 AU. The belt is a comet-filled cosmic scrapheap, rich with leftovers from the building of the solar system. Ultima Thule is thought to be too small to have developed its own geological activity: accordingly it could be a deep-frozen archive of the solar system’s earliest days.

Aside from its location, dark exterior and reddish tinge, everything about Ultima Thule — whether it has moons or rings, what kind of ices it is composed of — is currently a mystery. It might even be a binary system: two objects locked in a close gravitational embrace. “Really, we have no idea what to expect,” said Alan Stern, from Colorado’s Southwest Research Institute and the Nasa mission’s principal investigator, earlier this

New Horizons is the first mission to visit with intent. This little-known region of space is named after the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who first proposed its existence in the 1950s.Pluto is the best-known Kuiper belt object, discovered in 1930 (before the belt’s existence was confirmed). It took more than six decades to find another, and still longer to discover that multiple Pluto-like bodies existed. The discoveries forced a new definition of planets that in 2006 saw Pluto, the former ninth planet, downgraded to a “dwarf planet”.

The US National Academy of Sciences has long believed a visit to the belt — thought by some to harbour a mysterious Planet X, pushing some objects into peculiar orbits — is the secret to fully understanding the solar system.

https://www.ft.com/content/1d3eeafc-0527-11e9-bf0f-53b8511afd73
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

 

[anonymoose]

A New Year's space voyage to the end of the world

New Year countdowns are always special but, for space enthusiasts, the arrival of 2019 will usher in something truly memorable. At 05:33 GMT on January 1, the New Horizons spacecraft will reach the most distant object ever visited in the solar system.

The bullseye is a 20-mile-wide lump of rock that lies 4bn miles beyond Earth and orbits the Sun roughly once every 300 years. Spacecraft and rock will come within 2,200 miles of each other, a historic face-off that should deliver a treasure trove of data and images from the edge of our solar system. The rock, discovered in 2014 by the Hubble Space Telescope, is nicknamed Ultima Thule, meaning “beyond the known world”. It resides, in temperatures close to absolute zero, in the Kuiper belt.

This band of objects begins at Neptune, at around 30 AU (1 AU, or astronomical unit, is the distance from the Earth to the Sun), and stretches to at least 50 AU. The belt is a comet-filled cosmic scrapheap, rich with leftovers from the building of the solar system. Ultima Thule is thought to be too small to have developed its own geological activity: accordingly it could be a deep-frozen archive of the solar system’s earliest days.

Aside from its location, dark exterior and reddish tinge, everything about Ultima Thule — whether it has moons or rings, what kind of ices it is composed of — is currently a mystery. It might even be a binary system: two objects locked in a close gravitational embrace. “Really, we have no idea what to expect,” said Alan Stern, from Colorado’s Southwest Research Institute and the Nasa mission’s principal investigator, earlier this

New Horizons is the first mission to visit with intent. This little-known region of space is named after the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who first proposed its existence in the 1950s.Pluto is the best-known Kuiper belt object, discovered in 1930 (before the belt’s existence was confirmed). It took more than six decades to find another, and still longer to discover that multiple Pluto-like bodies existed. The discoveries forced a new definition of planets that in 2006 saw Pluto, the former ninth planet, downgraded to a “dwarf planet”.

The US National Academy of Sciences has long believed a visit to the belt — thought by some to harbour a mysterious Planet X, pushing some objects into peculiar orbits — is the secret to fully understanding the solar system.

https://www.ft.com/content/1d3eeafc-0527-11e9-bf0f-53b8511afd73
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

Why so many thread banned? Why anybody for that matter ?

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

This is awesome; I plan on staying up late to see how it's going. I guess we won't have photos though for several more hours after close approach, given the (forgive me for this) astronomical distances.

 

[Cypress]

This is awesome; I plan on staying up late to see how it's going. I guess we won't have photos though for several more hours after close approach, given the (forgive me for this) astronomical distances.

Back in the day I bet you were a Star Trek geek, like me.

We are one billion miles past Pluto...how freakin' awesome is that?

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Back in the day I bet you were a Star Trek geek, like me.

We are one billion miles past Pluto...how freakin' awesome is that?

Yep, I was a Trekkie before it was cool. lol

And Voyager 2 just passed beyond the Kuiper Belt and out of the heliosphere. It was launched before my oldest daughter was.

Enjoy.

 

[Cypress]

Yep, I was a Trekkie before it was cool. lol

And Voyager 2 just passed beyond the Kuiper Belt and out of the heliosphere. It was launched before my oldest daughter was.

Enjoy.

Wow. Voyager, that brings back good memories. Those first photos from Jupiter were mind-blowing...astonishing.

One of the most electric moments I remember as a kid was watching the TV as the first photos from the surface of Mars were transmitted by the Viking lander....electrifying!

 

[Ross Dolan]

Ultima Thule.

Truly exciting happening.

We do not do much space exploration any more...depending on stuff that was sent into space a decade ago.

Looking forward to seeing what this latest encounter reveals.

There is a special meaning in this for me. I was in the Air Force during the 1950's...in SAC.

Thule Air Base was the dread of all airmen...to be sent there was to be consigned to hell...except a frozen hell. It is the northern most base of the US Air Force...colder there than a witch's tit.

Looking forward to tonight.

 

[Cypress]

Why so many thread banned? Why anybody for that matter ?

There is nobody on that list who is not a known troll, a known racist, or someone who engages in bigotry, libel, or degenerate misogyny

In both real life and on the interwebs I exclude racists, bigots, and liars from civilized conversation. It is my contribution to humanity.


Now the history and backdrop of this New Horizon's mission is something space geeks can appreciate...….

one of the many exceptional features of New Horizons is that it was designed, from the beginning, to keep going after Pluto and to explore further worlds that had not even been identified when it was launched. This was necessary because at liftoff, there was no known Kuiper Belt object that New Horizons could reach after visiting Pluto. However, our statistical knowledge about the Kuiper Belt suggested there should be many such objects, which might be discovered while New Horizons was en route. Once that happened, New Horizons would be re-directed to visit one of them.

This search did not go as planned. It turned out to be much harder than anticipated to find a post-Pluto destination. This was largely because, the way things lined up, the area of the sky that needed to be explored was near the center of the Milky Way galaxy—the worst possible celestial real estate to look for new, faint objects against the dense population of background stars. As New Horizons made its nine-year journey clear across the solar system, years of looking with the best ground-based telescopes failed to reveal a suitable object. It got to the point where the success of the extended Kuiper Belt mission was in real doubt.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...s-far-in-the-rearview-next-stop-ultima-thule/

 

[anonymoose]

There is nobody on that list who is not a known troll, a known racist, or someone who engages in bigotry, libel, or degenerate misogyny

In both real life and on the interwebs I exclude racists, bigots, and liars from civilized conversation. It is my contribution to humanity.


Now the history and backdrop of this New Horizon's mission is something space geeks can appreciate...….

I recently bought a Celestron Nexstar 102GT Computerized Telescope from Craigs List. Very disappointed with it. Not sure if it's too complicated for me to use properly or if it just doesn't function the way it's supposed to.
Unless I point it at something I can see (like the moon or Mars) the computer never points it accurately at something really distant after I calibrate it.

 

[DebraDoesDonald]

I'm glad exciting science is still a thing in the U.S.

This is cool!

https://www.whereisroadster.com/

 

[Cypress]

I recently bought a Celestron Nexstar 102GT Computerized Telescope from Craigs List. Very disappointed with it. Not sure if it's too complicated for me to use properly or if it just doesn't function the way it's supposed to.
Unless I point it at something I can see (like the moon or Mars) the computer never points it accurately at something really distant after I calibrate it.

That sucks. I don't know what to tell you, since I am not a telescope geek.

There is no question to me that there is magic in the night sky, in a way that is beyond scientific measurement and description.

I do remember with crystal clear clarity the first time someone showed me Saturn in a telescope, the first time someone showed me the Andromeda galaxy in the night sky, the first time someone pointed out the disc of the Milky Way to me. Those were all watershed moments burned into my neurons.
Electrifying, when you get right down to it!

 

[Jade Dragon]

Why so many thread banned? Why anybody for that matter ?

Because like with me, certain dweebs came to your friendly discussions, and just started shit, and ruined the discussion.

 

[Jade Dragon]

Yep, I was a Trekkie before it was cool. lol

And Voyager 2 just passed beyond the Kuiper Belt and out of the heliosphere. It was launched before my oldest daughter was.

Enjoy.

I've been a big Star Wars fan, except the shitty Disney stuff. I consider that stuff non-canon. Of course I do that with most brain children, taken over from the creator, and milked for money. Before it was made with passion, and damn the money cost. Now it's made with money in consideration at every corner, and damn the passion.

 

[anonymoose]

That sucks. I don't know what to tell you, since I am not a telescope geek.

There is no question to me that there is magic in the night sky, in a way that is beyond scientific measurement and description.
it!

After reading forums about telescope use I realized that you really need to be a telescope geek to make those things work properly. I couldn't even understand what they were discussing . The scope was one that Costco offered so i figured it was doable.

 

[Cypress]

After reading forums about telescope use I realized that you really need to be a telescope geek to make those things work properly. I couldn't even understand what they were discussing . The scope was one that Costco offered so i figured it was doable.

Not surprised to hear that....one thing I learned from introductory college physics is that light optics are pretty complex, and not all that simple.

As for quantum mechanics...I am still trying to figure that sh*t out!



As to New Horizons, it looks like we will get a peak into the primordial soup of the solar system....should be good times!

New Horizons Successfully Explores Ultima Thule

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule in the early hours of New Year's Day, ushering in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt, a region of primordial objects that holds keys to understanding the origins of the solar system…..the spacecraft had executed its planned observations flawlessly. In the days and months to come, the mission’s scientists expect to receive pictures of Ultima Thule and scientific data that could lead to discoveries about the origins of the sun and the planets.

That is the latest triumph in a journey that started in 2006, when the spacecraft launched on a mission to explore Pluto. Thirteen years and more than four billion miles later, New Horizons has provided humanity’s first glimpse of a distant fragment that could be unchanged from the solar system’s earliest days.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/807/new-horizons-successfully-explores-ultima-thule/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/science/new-horizons-ultima-thule.html