New Horizons: Nitrogen Ice Flows and Beautiful Haze - http://clapway.com/2015/07/25/new-horizons-nitrogen-ice-flows-and-beautiful-haze654/

As NASA continues to receive and develop the massive stock of imagery and data from New Horizons’ recent flyby of Pluto, the dwarf planet continues to surprise and amaze scientists and enthusiasts alike. The latest images released on Friday reveal a breathtaking silhouette of the dwarf planet’s thin atmosphere, and lays bare nitrogen ice flowing on the surface.

For any still catching up, New Horizons recently earned its place in history as the very first probe to reach Pluto and its five moons on July 14th. The probe was sent into scientific overdrive during its short flyby because it was going much too fast to orbit the dwarf planet.

COULDN’T WE LEARN MORE ABOUT PLUTO IF WE STAYED IN ORBIT?

The thing about interplanetary space travel is…gravity. We couldn’t hope to pack enough chemical fuel to launch anything to the outer planets, because at a certain point we would have to add fuel to lift the extra fuel off of the planet, and more fuel for that fuel’s weight, etc. So instead, NASA sends its probes to rendezvous with objects with particularly high gravity, like Jupiter or Saturn. Then the gas giants’ immense gravity is used to sling-shot the probe, multiplying its speed to a great enough magnitude to shorten its journey by decades. This reduction of transit time also reduces the likelihood of other mishaps, like encounters with space dust travelling faster than the speed of sound, or mechanical failures. Because of its high velocity, there was simply no way for Pluto to slow the spacecraft into a stable orbit, so New Horizons had to work fast.

NEW FINDINGS

NASA’s most recent analyses show subtly differentiable layers of haze in Pluto’s nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane atmosphere. The atmosphere is roughly one hundred miles deep. “This is our first peek at Pluto’s atmosphere,” exclaimed Michael Summers, New Horizons scientist with George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He added that these atmospheric particles’ slow descent to the surface may be responsible for Pluto’s reddish hue.

What’s really strange is that Pluto’s hazy layer is five times thicker than computer models predicted, but its total mass seems to have been cut in half in just two short years. “That’s pretty astonishing, at least to an atmospheric scientist. That tells you something is happening,” Summers opined.

SIGNS OF GEOLOGIC ACTIVITY

More of NASA’s new data from New Horizons revealed what look like glacial ice flows. But Pluto’s ground temperature is roughly -400 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it far too cold for the ice to be composed of water.

PLUTO’S SURFACE AS OLD (OR YOUNG) AS DINOSAURS

This not only confirms, but strengthens the fact that much of Pluto’s surface is basically as old as the dinosaurs, roughly a few hundred million years old, which is extremely young on a planetary scale.

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New Horizons: Nitrogen Ice Flows and Beautiful Haze

Learning more and more about #dwarfplanet #Pluto. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/13/pluto-is-bigger-than-previously-thought-245/

A briefing by mission control for the New Horizons mission held on the morning of Monday, July 13th at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has stated that they are now much more confident of the diameter of Pluto. On the now dwarf planet that was stripped of its planet-hood in 2006, they are saying its size is larger than what was once thought.

Pluto’s Real Measurements

New pictures taken by NuSTAR reveal that Pluto is bigger and now measures around 1,473 miles (~ 2,370 km) in diameter with a margin error of 12.4 miles (20 km). Its previous measurements were around 1,472 miles (~ 2,368 km) in diameter with the same error accounted for. Because the margin of error is the same for both of the measurements, because the most recent one is bigger, it is a confirmation that the “dwarf planet” is bigger than what was originally calculated. Though the previous measurements were off by only about one mile (~1.61 km), the mass has stayed the same, meaning that the known density of Pluto changes dramatically.

What This Changes

As of right now, the density of Pluto changes, therefore changing the previous assumptions to permit for that loss. This means that much of the information that scientists “know” about the planet must change because it is bigger than previous estimates. One possibility that Alan Stern, the principal investigator on the matter, proposes is that there is more ice and less rock on the planet than what was assumed.

The Current Confirmations of New Horizons

At this time, with the new measurement of Pluto, the dwarf planet is confirmed to be the largest object in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of space debris at the outer edges of our solar system. Just because Pluto is bigger than any other known object in the Kuiper Belt does not mean that it’s the most massive or ‘heaviest’. That title goes to Eris, which was in fact another dwarf planet that helped strip Pluto of its status as a full-fledged planet.

Because this is man’s vicarious foray into “the final frontier”, there is no telling what could be found. Other larger objects may be found, thus taking the titles from both Pluto as well as Eris. Every new discovery that humanity makes–especially concerning space–leads it towards the future and a more definite understanding of the earth and other worlds alike.

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Pluto is Bigger Than Previously Thought

New Horizons" Pluto Map Reveals Strange Bands and Patches - http://clapway.com/2015/07/08/new-horizons-reveals-strange-bands-and-patches987/

One could safely assume most readers didn’t covet their Moon or Mars Maps in their childhood. But there’s always a chance to make amends for your kids’. A new map of Pluto that scientists have constructed from images captured by the famed spacecraft New Horizons has just hit the proverbial press.

Pluto map is a flat representation made from spherical pieces

The map unravels visible pieces of the sphere onto a flat, projected representation, revealing more features scientists have begun to take note of in recent days. They include patches near the equator which alternate between light and dark, and a singular, long, dark band scientists have named “the whale.”

Moby Dick’s Darker Cousin is only the beginning in a string of photos and data

New Horizons, the spacecraft that captured Moby Dick’s darker cousin, is only seven days away from its groundbreaking flyby of Pluto. New Horizons will pass Pluto’s surface at an altitude of about 13,000km. In this first pass, it will snap a veritable plethora of images and other scientific data. But these first pictures of the dwarf planet will be of a sophistication of an entirely different order than those of the Moon, or even our first studies of Mars. New Horizons will capture 5,000 times the data that Mariner did during its visit to the Red Planet. Moreover, targeted areas on Pluto’s surface will be displayed at a resolution better than 100 meters per pixel.

Images available so far are of much lower resolution, being assembled from a combination of the probe’s high-resolution (black and white) LORRI camera and its lower-resolution color imager, which we lovingly refer to as Ralph. Even so, we can still see a slew of different characteristics on the dwarf planet.

A white area near the center of Pluto will be directly below New Horizons upon the probe’s closest pass. On the east side is a splotchy place that’s been the root of the most heated discussion to the present moment. No one seems to know what the blobby patches are, but every one of them is a few kilometers in diameter.

Whale’s “tail” has weird craterlike donut

In what’s called the whale’s “tail,” is an object seeming to take the form of a doughnut. This could actually be an impact crater or a volcano, but at this low resolution either interpretation is equally warranted, i.e., is really unwarranted.

New Horizons has totally recovered from its 4th of July weekend hiccup, when it accidentally entered protective safe mode and dropped its connection with Earth for over an hour. The engineers behind New Horizons’ software have stated they understand the cause of the computer glitch, and have ruled it out of the realm of possibility for the next few days. Now let’s hope the Plutonians haven’t hacked our probe.

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New Horizons" Pluto Map Reveals Strange Bands and Patches

Good news for #NewHorizons who"ve got work to do tomorrow! - http://clapway.com/2015/07/06/nasas-new-horizons-probe-to-resume-normal-operations-123/

After suffering a brief setback, NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to return to normal operations.

A COMPUTER GLITCH

New Horizons suffered a computer malfunction on Saturday, July 4 resulting in a temporary loss of communication between the spacecraft and the mission control team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

After detecting the anomaly, the probe autonomously placed itself in safe mode, activating the craft’s backup computer and restoring communication.

RESUMING NORMAL SCIENCE OPERATIONS

Sending commands to, and receiving data from, New Horizons takes awhile due to the vast distance between the craft and Earth. Radio communication takes approximately four-and-a-half hours each way to traverse the roughly three billion miles.

Despite this communication delay, mission control and the New Horizons Anomaly Review Board were able to determine that there are no issues with hardware or software, and that the spacecraft is in good health. Investigators determined the cause of the computer glitch was a timing flaw in a command sequence. Fortunately, there are no plans to send that same command sequence again for the duration of the probe’s journey to Pluto. So hopefully the glitch won’t be replicated.

“I’m pleased that our mission team quickly identified the problem and assured the health of the spacecraft,” NASA’s Director of Planetary Science Jim Green reports. He continues, “Now – with Pluto in our sights – we’re on the verge of returning to normal operations and going for the gold.”

NASA hopes to resume normal science operations on Tuesday, July 7.

STILL ON TRACK FOR PLUTO RENDEZVOUS

The probe has been unable to gather scientific data while in safe mode. NASA says that, although some scientific observation opportunities have been lost, they do not affect the primary objectives of the probe’s mission.

Fortunately, the glitch and the craft’s time spent in safe mode do not appear to have affected New Horizon’s trajectory. NASA says the probe is still on course and is still on track for its Pluto flyby on July 14.

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NASA’s New Horizons Probe to Resume Normal Operations

#NewHorizons temporarily loses communication. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/05/nasa-temporarily-loses-contact-with-new-horizons-probe/

NASA’s New Horizons probe suffered a glitch that resulted in a temporary loss of communication between the probe and mission control.

RADIO SILENCE

The Pluto-bound spacecraft experienced a computer malfunction at 1:54 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 4 that disrupted radio contact between New Horizons and the mission control team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

Fortunately, the probe’s autopilot functioned as designed and was able to force itself into safe mode and switch to its backup computer after detecting the glitch. So the radio silence only lasted approximately 80 minutes.

INVESTIGATING THE GLITCH

NASA assembled the New Horizons Anomaly Review Board at 4:00 p.m. ET on July 4 to review data and assess the cause of the unexpected computer glitch. Preliminary data shows the probe is healthy and still on its proper course.

The team hopes the available information will be enough to properly diagnose and remedy the issue in order to return the spacecraft to its regular operating mode.

LOST TIME

New Horizons is unable to collect any scientific data until NASA can return the probe to its full-functioning mode.

The spacecraft is nearly three billion miles away from Earth. Because of this vast distance, it takes four-and-a-half hours for radio communication from Earth to reach the spacecraft, and four-and-a-half hours for messages to return. This nine-hour communication delay means that lots of data collection time has been lost due to the computer glitch. NASA is unsure how long it will take to restore normal operations, but it says full recovery is expected to take “from one to several days.”

ON TO PLUTO

If, in fact, NASA’s New Horizons Anomaly Review Board determines that the New Horizons spacecraft is still on course, and no corrections are needed, it is possible that the probe is still on schedule for its Pluto flyby on July 14. The spacecraft is also scheduled to pass by Pluto’s moons.

This historic mission will provide scientists with the first-ever close-up images and data from Pluto and its moons. Hopefully the New Horizons Anomaly Review Board will be able to restore New Horizons to a fully functioning spacecraft without much delay.

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NASA Temporarily Loses Contact With New Horizons Probe