Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Get the news
Log In or Subscribe to skip
923 26 [h=6]Share This Story![/h]Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about
[h=4]Pluto: Icy, weird, far away -- finally gets a close encounter with Earth[/h]It's almost time for the Pluto flyby. Are you ready?
{# #}
[h=4]Sent![/h]A link has been sent to your friend's email address.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
[h=6]Join the Nation's Conversation[/h]To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
For the first time in its 4-billion-year life, Pluto got a visitor from Earth as NASA celebrates the success of its flyby mission. VPC
View of Pluto as seen from NASA New Horizons spacecraft, which has traveled more than 9 years and 3+ billion miles. This is the last and most detailed image of Pluto sent to Earth before the moment of closest approach.(Photo: NASA via Instagram)
LAUREL, Md. – For the first time in its 4-billion-year life, Pluto got a visitor from Earth.
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has made contact with Earth after what appears to be a successful flyby of the dwarf planet. Images and data should come in during the coming days and weeks.
Prompting wild applause and hugs at the Mission Operations Center here, the spacecraft sent signals confirming that it survived its historic rendezvous with Pluto and continues to sail through the outer zone of the solar system. Engineers on the ground received the much-anticipated messages beginning at 8:52 pm Tuesday, 13 tense hours after the craft's historic flyby.
"The spacecraft was happy," mission operations manager Alice Bowman said, summarizing the technical details New Horizons sent to the ground. "In this instance, our spacecraft did exactly what it was supposed to do."
Principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., interpreted the spacecraft's transmissions another way, calling them "one small step for New Horizons and one giant leap for mankind."
The team took congratulations from luminaries ranging from President Obama, who tweeted, "Thanks @NASA -- it's a great day for discovery and American leadership," to British physicist Stephen Hawking, who recorded a message in his trademark electronic voice saying that he'll "be watching closely" as the spacecraft beams its trove of data to Earth.
Upon hearing the good news, the scientists, mission staff and guests yelled and whistled even more loudly than they did at 7:49 am ET Tuesday, the precise moment of the spacecraft's closest approach to Pluto, and many team members shed tears. No human-made object has been closer to Pluto, once considered the outermost planet in the solar system but now officially known as the biggest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the icy, far-removed Siberia of the solar system.
After the spacecraft phoned home, mission personnel responsible for various systems on the spacecraft reported to Bowman on the status of the spacecraft's various components. The bottom line was always the same: "nominal," or as expected. The reports made clear that during the 22 hours the spacecraft was on its own, it had executed the proper maneuvers, hadn't used up too much of its fuel, and had collected plenty of data.
USA TODAY
Pluto's strange romance: Column
"We have a healthy spacecraft. We've recorded data from the Pluto system, and we're outbound from Pluto," Bowman told her staff here at The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which managers the mission for NASA.
Scientists were thrilled to learn that a bonanza of data, years of effort and planning in the making, is stashed safely aboard the craft.
USA TODAY
Pluto flyby could unmask strangest solar-system citizen
"The most important (data) is safe on the spacecraft, and all we have to do is send it home," said New Horizons scientist Leslie Young of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "We've known the sizes of the boxes under the Christmas tree, and now we get to open them."
USA TODAY
Pluto flyby: Here's what you need to know
After surviving the 3 billion-mile, 9 1/2-year journey to Pluto, New Horizons seemed unlikely to falter just as it achieved its goal. But it would take only a speck of dust the size of a grain of rice to mortally wound the spacecraft, making it impossible for scientists to rest easy until the spacecraft checked in with its handlers.
Even so, the spacecraft was programmed to put all its strength into collecting hundreds of pieces of data in the 24 hours surrounding the flyby, the period when it would have the best view of the tiny Pluto and its retinue of five moons. Before it phoned home, New Horizon's cameras frantically snapped pictures, and sensors tried to collect bits of dust and Pluto's atmosphere.
The images and other details sent to the ground in past days have already revealed a surprising and fantastic world. Near the bright "heart" on Pluto's flank, for example, there are both lots of craters – indicating an ancient surface, perhaps several billion years old – and stretches of fresh, uncratered terrain, which is probably relatively young.
More data will be streamed to Earth in the coming days, including photos that principal investigator Alan Stern promises will be 10 times sharper than those seen so far. The sheer volume of data means that the last of it won't reach scientists' desks until the fall of 2016.
By then the $720 million mission may have set its sights even further -- on another icy little world in the Kuiper Belt. The science team has deemed several Kuiper Belt bodies worth a visit, but they'd need more money from NASA to keep their mission alive.
The New Horizons team's two goals "are to explore more Kuiper Belt objects," said Stern, "and to get funded to do exactly that."
USA TODAY
New Pluto images may reignite debate over dwarf planet status
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKNever-before-seen image of Pluto revealed | 01:43NASA's New Horizons spacecraft delivered the best view yet of Pluto, and the images are expected to only get better.
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKA timeline of New Horizons' journey to Pluto | 02:15The New Horizons' spacecraft has successfully completed the flyby of Pluto early Tuesday morning on July 14, 2015. This motion graphic piece shows New Horizons' journey from Earth to Pluto. Ramon Padilla, Jerry Mosemak, George Petras, Bethany Fewell, Zackary Walker
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKPluto flyby elicits huge cheers, 'USA' chants at NASA | 00:43NASA staff and fans of the space program celebrate the flyby of Pluto from the New Horizon spacecraft. VPC
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKNASA | Four Questions About New Horizons | 01:48NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is speeding towards Pluto for the first-ever flyby on July 14, 2015. Scientists are eager to collect data on the dwarf planet’s chemical and atmospheric makeup, and the Ralph spectrometer will do just that. NASA USA TODAY
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKMankind about to see Pluto for first time | 03:35NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on Pluto, now a dwarf planet, and sending back images of its surface for the first time. USA TODAY
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOK3 billion miles later, spacecraft closes in on Pluto | 01:51Almost 10 years after it launched, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on Pluto. The flyby will offer the first detailed look at the dwarf planet. VPC
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKNew horizons flyby will shed light on Pluto's mysteries | 01:22NASA's New Horizons probe will make its closest approach to Pluto this week, giving us a wealth of new information about the distant dwarf planet. Newslook
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKPluto flyby begins: NASA probe enters encounter phase | 00:43NASA's New Horizons probe has officially begun to execute its sequence of Pluto flyby observations as it zooms toward its closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14. USA TODAY
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKNASA probe captures first color images of Pluto | 01:26NASA’s New Horizons probe has sent back its most detailed images of Pluto yet, but it’s got a way to go before we see high-resolution images.
Video provided by Newsy Newsy
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKNew horizons spacecraft takes first images of Pluto's moons | 01:33NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the clearest images yet of two of Pluto's moons as it approaches the dwarf planet to collect more data.
Video provided by Newsy Newslook
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKNASA spacecraft soon arrives at Pluto | 02:29USA TODAY's Rick Hampson discusses the dwarf planet Pluto, and NASA's deep space mission dubbed "New Horizons," which aims to explore, photograph and analyze it. Image courtesy NASA. Jason Allen
PLUTO THE PLANET OR DWARF PLANET? WE FINALLY GET A CLOSE LOOKWait, is Pluto a planet, again? | USA NOW | 02:09There’s been a lot of talk about Pluto’s planet status, eight years since the celestial body was officially labeled a “dwarf planet.” Carly Mallenbaum talks about what all of the fuss is about and why some people are really excited for Pluto. (USA TODAY, USA NOW)
Last VideoNext Video
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
The New Horizons' spacecraft has successfully completed the flyby of Pluto early Tuesday morning on July 14, 2015. This motion graphic piece shows New Horizons' journey from Earth to Pluto. Ramon Padilla, Jerry Mosemak, George Petras, Bethany Fewell, Zackary Walker
0) { %> 0) { %>
0) { %>
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed