Space In General

[CodeRedR51]

 

[niky]

So... speculatively... lots of thawing going on down in the south in the past? That's an incredibly rough surface down there...

 

[Robin]

As one article commented it really does look like a matt painting someone drew for Star Trek in the 60's Your quintessential Alien planet.

 

[Mike Rotch]

The last full frame of Pluto before the probe gets too close, has been DL'd:

So many question that won't probably ever be answered

 

[Dennisch]

Yes.

Nerdgasm.

Yes.

I need a smoke.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The last full frame of Pluto before the probe gets too close, has been DL'd:

So many question that won't probably ever be answered

Just awesome! I read that once the full data download starts they'll have lots of images from different spectra that should help them answer a lot of questions.

 

[Dennisch]

So, Clyde Tombaugh's ashes are there where they are supposed to be, sadly it will just keep on travelling with the craft.

 

[Mike Rotch]

I remember when the mission blasted off 9 years ago, thinking to myself "I wonder, I wonder if it will get there and what it will see".

Among the rubble of humanity on this planet what with war and misery, bless the scientists and politicians who made this feat happen.

 

[Dennisch]

Maybe this success will spark a new space race, just maybe.

 

[Dotini]

So... speculatively... lots of thawing going on down in the south in the past? That's an incredibly rough surface down there...

The surface does not seem to be dominated by ancient craters, like our Moon and some other airless bodies.
It has an active atmosphere and geologic processes which change the surface.
Where does the energy come from to drive this activity? The dynamic elliptical orbit and a family of nearby moons would be my first guesses.
It may even have a magnetic field!

 

[ECGadget]

Just finished watching the press conference, loved the guy who asked:
"So when are we going back to Pluto?"

Really happy about this, great to see the images and data coming back. Hopefully we can get a whole bunch of science back later on today!

Pluto showing us love even after we demoted it to a Planetoid!

 

[CodeRedR51]

Was a fly-by done on purpose for this mission? Why couldn't they set it up to orbit the planet?

 

[Dennisch]

Was a fly-by done on purpose for this mission? Why couldn't they set it up to orbit the planet?

It would require too much fuel to carry to slow the craft down to get it into orbit.

 

[axletramp]

Plutonians must think we're rude. Didn't stop, no wine, not even a quick hello!

 

[Dotini]

Was a fly-by done on purpose for this mission? Why couldn't they set it up to orbit the planet?

The craft will be hopefully flying by another planetoid before taking off to exit the solar system, a la Voyager.

 

[Dennisch]

The craft will be hopefully flying by another planetoid before taking off to exit the solar system, a la Voyager.

To add to this,

The search for KBOs

 

[Dotini]

Incredibly awesome dwarf planet.
- Why are the two hemispheres so different?
- In the lower hemisphere, why is there such contrasting light and dark areas?
- Does the relative lack of craters in the light area mean this area is active?
- Could the dark areas be hydrocarbons?

The last full frame of Pluto before the probe gets too close, has been DL'd:

So many question that won't probably ever be answered

 

[Danoff]

Also a cool dwarf planet being explored:

 

[Dennisch]

Giant ball of dusty ice. Great picture. 👍

 

[Dotini]

Giant ball of dusty ice. Great picture. 👍

Last I heard, they were thinking the bright spots of Ceres were not ice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...te-spots-on-ceres-might-not-be-ice-after-all/
According to Christopher Russell of the University of California at Los Angeles, the Dawn mission's principal investigator, the team is "shying away from there being ice on the surface."

"The general consensus on the team right now is that water is definitely a factor on Ceres, but that the spots themselves are more likely to be just highly reflective salt, rather than water," Russell told The Post.

 

[dylansan]

There was a NASA stream during the flyby, but I missed it. Did anyone watch it? Is there anything worth going back to watch?

 

[G.T.Ace]

There was a NASA stream during the flyby, but I missed it. Did anyone watch it? Is there anything worth going back to watch?

Liked for the avatar. <3

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[Kurei]

It's late, but this being the Space-In-General thread, I thought it'd be appropriate
(SPAAACE!)

 

[wfooshee]

There was a NASA stream during the flyby, but I missed it. Did anyone watch it? Is there anything worth going back to watch?

The program at actual close approach was not mission stuff, but a press conference, more or less. There was no transmission from the craft as it's actually not transmitting, only recording, during the fly-by.

There was a live show this evening at re-acquisition of telemetry. We got to hear the different departments reporting their systems' status as they got data, and it turns out there is a healthy spacecraft departing Pluto.

Nothing actually downloaded and distributed yet.

 

[Robin]

Waiting for the global panic when we get the images back and find there is a city on it

 

[Thematic]

@Robin. Martians didn't have the technology to evade us out of the system?

 

[niky]

Everybody knows Martians are a convenient fiction.

The outpost is Venusian, clearly.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

So... speculatively... lots of thawing going on down in the south in the past? That's an incredibly rough surface down there...

It has to do with Pluto's atmosphere. Depending on its position in orbit, it starts to solidify and later reverts to a gaseous state. It's a lot like our skin perspiring.

 

[G.T.Ace]

Oh my gosh.... I just wanted to post this, but yours is even more heartbreaking.