NASA spacecraft to reveal the icy glory of Pluto

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — On Tuesday, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will sweep past Pluto and present the previously unexplored world in all its icy glory.
It promises to be the biggest planetary unveiling in a quarter-century. The curtain hasn't been pulled back like this since NASA's Voyager 2 shed light on Neptune in 1989.
New Horizons has traveled 3 billion miles over 9½ years to get to this point. The fastest spacecraft ever launched, it carries the most powerful suite of science instruments sent on a scouting and reconnaissance mission of a new, unfamiliar world.
Guarantees principal scientist Alan Stern, ''We're going to knock your socks off.''

The size of a baby grand piano, the spacecraft will come closest to Pluto on Tuesday morning — at 7:49 a.m. EDT. That's when New Horizons is predicted to pass within 7,767 miles of Pluto. Fourteen minutes later, the spacecraft will zoom within 17,931 miles of Charon, Pluto's jumbo moon.
For plutophiles, it will be cause to celebrate, especially for those at the operations center at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. The lab designed and built the craft for NASA and has been managing its route across the solar system.
''What NASA's doing with New Horizons is unprecedented in our time and probably something close . . . the last picture show, for a very, very long time,'' said Stern, of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
It is the last stop in NASA's quest to explore every planet in the solar system, starting with Venus in 1962. In a cosmic coincidence, the Pluto trip falls on the 50th anniversary of the first flyby of Mars, by Mariner 4.
Pluto is now called a dwarf planet, but it still had full planet status when New Horizons left Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2006. Pluto's demotion came seven months later, a sore subject still for many.
The Hubble Space Telescope previously captured the best images of Pluto. If the pixelated blobs of pictures had been of Earth, though, not even the continents would be visible.
The New Horizons team is turning ''a point of light into a planet,'' Stern said.
An image released last week shows a copper-colored Pluto bearing a large, bright spot in the shape of a heart.
Scientists expect image resolution to improve dramatically by Tuesday. The 7,767-mile span at closest approach is about the distance between Seattle and Sydney.
New Horizons, weighing fewer than 1,000 pounds including fuel, is expected to collect 5,000 times as much data as Mariner 4.
The team gets one crack at this. ''We're trying to hit a very small box, relatively speaking,'' said Mark Holdridge, the encounter mission manager.
''It's 60 by 90 miles, and we're going 30,000 miles per hour, and we're trying to hit that box within a plus or minus 100 seconds.''
The only planet in the solar system discovered by an American, Pluto is a mini solar system unto itself. Pluto — just two-thirds the size of the Earth's moon — has big moon Charon that is just over half its size, as well as baby moons Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.

[Dr. Pezus]

The only planet in the solar system discovered by an American, Pluto is a mini solar system unto itself. Pluto -- just two-thirds the size of the Earth's moon -- has big moon Charon that is just over half its size, as well as baby moons Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.

Too bad it isn't a planet lol

[Xevross]

The only planet in the solar system discovered by an American, Pluto is a mini solar system unto itself. Pluto -- just two-thirds the size of the Earth's moon -- has big moon Charon that is just over half its size, as well as baby moons Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.

Too bad it isn't a planet lol

You had to go there!

Let them have their pride.

[Legend]

Eh this might change Pluto back into a planet.

Also time in space doesn't really work. The fly by isn't till 13 hours later than the listed time.

Then "space internet" is slow. It'll take 16 months for the ship to send back all its data. High res photos will not be here tomorrow.

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

Eh this might change Pluto back into a planet.

Also time in space doesn't really work. The fly by isn't till 13 hours later than the listed time.

Then "space internet" is slow. It'll take 16 months for the ship to send back all its data. High res photos will not be here tomorrow.

[DD_Bwest]

yea excited, but we wont be getting the real juicy stuff for a while, i heard the bitrate is terrible.  worse then 56k modem slow lol

i did see someone on gaf quote a tweet though that we will be getting 1 more image before it goes quiet to spend all its time/power on the encounter

[Legend]

Space is huge.

[Aura7541]

That's quite exciting I look forward to the images 16 months later.

[the-pi-guy]

The only planet in the solar system discovered by an American, Pluto is a mini solar system unto itself. Pluto -- just two-thirds the size of the Earth's moon -- has big moon Charon that is just over half its size, as well as baby moons Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.

Too bad it isn't a planet lol

It's a dwarf PLANET!!!

 

Space is huge.

Huge just doesn't cover it.  

[Legend]

Huge just doesn't cover it.  

Fine, really huge!

Also The inside story of New Horizons' 'Apollo 13' moment on its way to Pluto - The Washington Post

NASA Television | NASA

[BasilZero]

I've been following this for a while too.

Cant wait for more information/news !

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

I hope we get better photos.

[Legend]

This is the last one before it went dark.

[Legend]

[kitler53]

The only planet in the solar system discovered by an American, Pluto is a mini solar system unto itself. Pluto -- just two-thirds the size of the Earth's moon -- has big moon Charon that is just over half its size, as well as baby moons Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx.

Too bad it isn't a planet lol