Posted on May 3, 2019
What did NASA's New Horizons discover around Pluto?
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Dwarf Planet Pluto -
Our Solar System beyond the 8th Rock from the Sun - Detail
As I indicated in the Dwarf Planet Introduction, We are going to bypass Neptune's Moon Triton for now and focus on Dwarf Planet Pluto... Please Note: This video is a little bit longer than others that I have linked for information, but is necessary... You have the option of not viewing it, viewing it now or saving the link to watch later on you PC or smart TV...
As stated before, "Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered and is the largest known plutoid. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and was originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun." Wikipedia
Orbital period: 248 years
Radius: 738.38 mi
Discovered: February 18, 1930
Moons: Charon, Nix, Styx, Kerberos, Hydra
Frin Wikipedia - "New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Wikipedia
(Note that note designations have been removed for readability.)
Launch date: January 19, 2006
Contractor: International Launch Services
LORRI: Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager
Ralph: Ralph Telescope
Alice: Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer
REX: Radio Science Experiment"
"New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow, which as of 2019 includes 2014 MU69. It is the fifth space probe to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System.
On January 19, 2006, New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by an Atlas V rocket directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory with a speed of about 16.26 km/s (10.10 mi/s; 58,500 km/h; 36,400 mph). It was the fastest man-made object ever launched from Earth. After a brief encounter with asteroid 132524 APL, New Horizons proceeded to Jupiter, making its closest approach on February 28, 2007, at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The Jupiter flyby provided a gravity assist that increased New Horizons' speed; the flyby also enabled a general test of New Horizons' scientific capabilities, returning data about the planet's atmosphere, moons, and magnetosphere.
Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in hibernation mode to preserve on-board systems, except for brief annual checkouts.[14] On December 6, 2014, New Horizons was brought back online for the Pluto encounter, and instrument check-out began.[15] On January 15, 2015, the spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto.
On July 14, 2015, at 11:49 UTC, it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet. On October 25, 2016, at 21:48 UTC, the last of the recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from New Horizons. Having completed its flyby of Pluto, New Horizons then maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object (486958) 2014 MU69 "Ultima Thule", which occurred on January 1, 2019, when it was 43.4 AU from the Sun. In August 2018, NASA cited results by Alice on New Horizons to confirm the existence of a "hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System. This "wall" was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft."
Our Solar System beyond the 8th Rock from the Sun - Detail
As I indicated in the Dwarf Planet Introduction, We are going to bypass Neptune's Moon Triton for now and focus on Dwarf Planet Pluto... Please Note: This video is a little bit longer than others that I have linked for information, but is necessary... You have the option of not viewing it, viewing it now or saving the link to watch later on you PC or smart TV...
As stated before, "Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered and is the largest known plutoid. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and was originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun." Wikipedia
Orbital period: 248 years
Radius: 738.38 mi
Discovered: February 18, 1930
Moons: Charon, Nix, Styx, Kerberos, Hydra
Frin Wikipedia - "New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Wikipedia
(Note that note designations have been removed for readability.)
Launch date: January 19, 2006
Contractor: International Launch Services
LORRI: Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager
Ralph: Ralph Telescope
Alice: Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer
REX: Radio Science Experiment"
"New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched in 2006 with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system in 2015, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) in the decade to follow, which as of 2019 includes 2014 MU69. It is the fifth space probe to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System.
On January 19, 2006, New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by an Atlas V rocket directly into an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory with a speed of about 16.26 km/s (10.10 mi/s; 58,500 km/h; 36,400 mph). It was the fastest man-made object ever launched from Earth. After a brief encounter with asteroid 132524 APL, New Horizons proceeded to Jupiter, making its closest approach on February 28, 2007, at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The Jupiter flyby provided a gravity assist that increased New Horizons' speed; the flyby also enabled a general test of New Horizons' scientific capabilities, returning data about the planet's atmosphere, moons, and magnetosphere.
Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in hibernation mode to preserve on-board systems, except for brief annual checkouts.[14] On December 6, 2014, New Horizons was brought back online for the Pluto encounter, and instrument check-out began.[15] On January 15, 2015, the spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto.
On July 14, 2015, at 11:49 UTC, it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet. On October 25, 2016, at 21:48 UTC, the last of the recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from New Horizons. Having completed its flyby of Pluto, New Horizons then maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object (486958) 2014 MU69 "Ultima Thule", which occurred on January 1, 2019, when it was 43.4 AU from the Sun. In August 2018, NASA cited results by Alice on New Horizons to confirm the existence of a "hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System. This "wall" was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft."
Space
13S: Space Operations
Astronomy
Physics
Posted >1 y ago
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Thank you, my friend Sgt (Join to see) for posting and honoring a planet named for a cartoon dog :-)
Of course most recognize the reverse is the case :-)
I was saddened in humorous fashion when Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf planet. Plutonians may well have been miffed at that point :-)
Of course most recognize the reverse is the case :-)
I was saddened in humorous fashion when Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf planet. Plutonians may well have been miffed at that point :-)
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Sgt (Join to see)
Good Evening LTC Stephen F. - Even though Pluto was demoted from planet to Dwarf Planet (tears) it was because astronomers found another object farther out in the Kuiper Belt of approximately the same size as Pluto and this Dwarf Planet is called Eris... The both have one thing in common that Planets do not and that is that these Dwarfs have not cleared out the space around them and that is one of the key criteria used by Astronomers and Physicists... Like Pluto, who has a large moon, "Charon", Eris has a moon named "Dysnomia"... It is believed that Neptune plays a role in the orbits of each of these Dwarf Planets and their moons... I plan to share a few more posts on the Dwarf Planets, so stay tuned, if you are interested in "Space"...
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Pluto tuned out to be quite an interesting object, as opposed to the ball of ice and rock we expected.
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Sgt (Join to see)
1SG (Join to see) - It is a remarkable Dwarf Planet and is more interesting than either Uranus or Neptune in my opinion...and we have yet to cover a Dwarf Planet in the far reaches of Our Solar System...
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