Eye's on the New Horizons and the Kuiper Belt

[rockytopva]

16 hours and 500,000 miles from Pluto! I would say that the space craft is in roll maneuver as it takes photographs from different vantage points. We may not get any more images until after the flyby!

Date--------- Velocity relative to Pluto
6/28/2015 - 13.80 km/s
7/01/2015 - 13.78 km/s
7/06/2015 - 13.80 km/s
7/10/2015 - 13.78 km/s
7/12/2015 - 13.80 km/s
7/13/2015 - 13.78 km/s

Date--------- Heliocentric (relative to the sun) Velocity
6/28/2015 - 14.54 km/s (32,525 mph)
7/01/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/06/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/10/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/12/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)
7/13/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)

The antenna has to be positioned within a few degrees to beam back photos to earth.

 

[rockytopva]

1 hour and 50,000 miles from Pluto! I would say that the space craft is in roll maneuver as it takes photographs from different vantage points. We may not get any more images until after the flyby! I was expecting a change in velocity that did not happen.

Date--------- Velocity relative to Pluto
6/28/2015 - 13.80 km/s
7/01/2015 - 13.78 km/s
7/06/2015 - 13.80 km/s
7/10/2015 - 13.78 km/s
7/12/2015 - 13.80 km/s
7/13/2015 - 13.78 km/s
7/14/2015 - 13.78 km/s

Date--------- Heliocentric (relative to the sun) Velocity
6/28/2015 - 14.54 km/s (32,525 mph)
7/01/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/06/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/10/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/12/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)
7/13/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)
7/14/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)

 

[rockytopva]

Just passed the closest we will ever come to Pluto! Will have to wait 9 hours to see how we did!

 

[rockytopva]

Charon (B/W LORRI image) and Pluto (Color RALPH image) like we have never seen them. I am amazed that Pluto is a red planet and not an icy white one...

 

[whitestone]

The heart looks like a glancing carom from NW to SE of a huge body, plowing up the lighter under-surface, and scattering the light material east and south. I bet that's what they'll determine

 

[rockytopva]

As New Horizons pulls away from Pluto and our solar system, with about a terabyte of data and the remains of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, I find little change of velocity after the flyby. It will take some time to retrieve all that data as we are 3 billion miles away from Pluto

Date--------- Heliocentric (relative to the sun) Velocity
6/28/2015 - 14.54 km/s (32,525 mph)
7/01/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/06/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/10/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/13/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)
7/15/2015 - 14.52 km/s (32,480 mph)

Interesting note that New Horizons is 32.92 AU from the sun and 31.92 AU from the earth. This means that Pluto and Earth are align with the sun, and I would also say with the galactic center of our galaxy. This is what made viewing Pluto difficult months out as they had a dense concentration of stars from the Sagittarius constellation to compete with. I would imagine that New Horizons is now journeying towards the galactic center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

 

[rockytopva]

The icy mountains of Pluto

 

[rockytopva]

Charon up close!

 

[rockytopva]

Pretty cool videos of the flyover...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AbiygSo478
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydU-YrG_INk

 

[rockytopva]

Date--------- Heliocentric Velocity
6/28/2015 - 14.54 km/s (32,525 mph)
7/01/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/10/2015 - 14.53 km/s (32,502 mph)
7/17/2015 - 14.51 km/s (32,458 mph)
7/22/2015 - 14.51 km/s (32,458 mph)
8/14/2015 - 14.50 km/s (32,435 mph)


We are going to be getting media from this encounter all the way into 2016. It takes time when you are 3,008,980,000 miles out! Here is a full colored view of Pluto!

 

[rockytopva]

Pluto Fly-by movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds_OlZnV9qkv

 

[rockytopva]

Appears Charon has a red pole!

https://blogs.nasa.gov/pluto/2015/09/09/new-horizons-probes-the-mystery-of-charons-red-pole/

 

[rockytopva]

More images from the Pluto site... http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

 

[rockytopva]

More images from the Pluto site... http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

 

[Barrd]

Fascinating

 

[ezekiel]

A large impact on the far side of Jupiter. It will be on the northern pole region. The probe will see it. If able from earth the rock hitting, will things will fly over the northern pole.Yes short time it will happen. Oh tammuz why you cry.

 

[brokentuningfork]

This is really cool, can anyone explain to me what the other one calls "charon" is? Is it a moon? Cuz it looks the same size as pluto, how can it be a moon?