Pluto's 4th moon |
Pluto's 4th moon |
Jul 20 2011, 01:55 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
New moon discovered around Pluto using Hubble images!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/s...pluto-moon.html -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Jul 20 2011, 02:13 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Awesome, another target for NH
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Jul 20 2011, 02:23 PM
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#3
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
I just saw that, cool. Who would have thought it would have so many moons ?
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Jul 20 2011, 04:25 PM
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#4
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 35 Joined: 10-July 11 Member No.: 6055 |
In the search for a possible ring around Pluto in advance of the New Horizons visit, a 4th moon was discovered, more info here: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-hubble-moon-pluto.html
Looks to be pretty small, less than 35km. -kap |
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Jul 20 2011, 04:31 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2086 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
It's gonna be tricky to plan a close-flyby of all four of them, that's for sure. I don't envy the NH team, even with the years still left to plan.
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Jul 20 2011, 04:32 PM
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#6
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 35 Joined: 10-July 11 Member No.: 6055 |
It's gonna be tricky to plan a close-flyby of all four of them, that's for sure. I don't envy the NH team, even with the years still left to plan. How close would a flyby need to be to get decent science data and images on something 35km across? I'm not that familiar with the instruments on New Horizons. -kap |
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Jul 20 2011, 04:36 PM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
In all likelihood, if they already have a good orbit fit for P4, the NH team already knows the closest approach distance and time. The actual trajectory through the Pluto system is fixed based on other requirements, neither Nix nor Hydra and certainly not P4 will have changed that. Only some observations times and targets might change a bit.
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Jul 20 2011, 04:42 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
We'll likely get a fair imagery with LORRI, and crudely resolved colors with MVIC; unlikely to do more than the very crudest compositional resolution with LEISA...more once we have a good orbit fit that goes out to 2015.5.
-Alan |
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Jul 20 2011, 04:48 PM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Back of the envelope calculation - let's say P4 is 20 km and closest approach by NH is 50 000 km. The moon would then be about 80 pixels across in LORRI images. Not bad at all.
That's about this big, although the uncertainty is obviously +/- 50% of this: -------------------- |
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Jul 20 2011, 08:29 PM
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#10
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 62 Joined: 11-July 11 Member No.: 6058 |
Ah, Hubble - casting off veils of mankind's ignorance since 1990. Congrats to the discoverers.
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Jul 20 2011, 08:56 PM
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#11
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Member Group: Members Posts: 655 Joined: 22-January 06 Member No.: 655 |
Really pleasing news! This no doubt presents a nice challenge for the re-design of LORRI pointing sequences - I imagine it's getting a little tight now around C/A.
All we need now is a background star occultation observed from Mauna Kea or elsewhere to reveal a few rings or ring-arcs..... |
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Jul 20 2011, 09:14 PM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
The "Kodak Moment" team here should probably have another stab at photo ops once the refined orbit details are available.
-------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Jul 20 2011, 09:29 PM
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#13
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2086 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
What would be the procedure if rings were discovered? NH would have to avoid passing through them at encounter, right? And if they're so faint that NH itself discovers them, time would be very short in making and sending commands to avoid them.
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Jul 20 2011, 09:46 PM
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#14
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Member Group: Members Posts: 796 Joined: 27-February 08 From: Heart of Europe Member No.: 4057 |
Fantastic news!
New Horizons flyby of Pluto more and more looks like Voyager's flybys of giant planets. So many targets! -------------------- |
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Jul 20 2011, 10:23 PM
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#15
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
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Jul 20 2011, 10:59 PM
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#16
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Member Group: Members Posts: 104 Joined: 1-June 08 Member No.: 4172 |
I see two possibilities. Perhaps Pluto will continue to be the only object in the solar system with a number of discovered natural satellites between two and 13, a fact which might point to a particularly interesting orbital history that could be related to the presence of Charon. Alternatively, it will be joined in this distinction by some significant fraction of other TNOs as soon as a similar degree of attention is paid to them. Either way, there will be some explaining to do - and I don't know which of "Pluto is unique" and "the Kuiper belt is full of 3,4,5+-body-systems" would be easier to explain.
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Jul 20 2011, 11:37 PM
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#17
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
the only object in the solar system with a number of discovered natural satellites between two and 13 ...and the only object in the solar system with a natural satellite discovered in an image taken on a Tuesday. -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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Jul 20 2011, 11:44 PM
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#18
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I see two possibilities. Perhaps Pluto will continue to be the only object in the solar system with a number of discovered natural satellites between two and 13, a fact which might point to a particularly interesting orbital history that could be related to the presence of Charon. No. There's at least one asteroid with three moons - a quadruple system. http://www.oca.eu/workshop/Pise/slides/Pisa-Colas.pdf |
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Jul 21 2011, 12:18 AM
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#19
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
The NH encounter just keeps getting more & more exciting. Never wanted four years to pass so fast before in my life!
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jul 21 2011, 12:20 PM
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#20
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Member Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 29-August 06 From: Columbia, MD Member No.: 1083 |
What's the general consensus (or is there any?) on whether these objects (Nix, Hydra and P4) are all moons that formed following a large impact on either Charon or Pluto? Or could all 5 objects be ones that formed alone and then Pluto/Pluto-Charon's gravity captured them?
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Jul 21 2011, 01:48 PM
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#21
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Member Group: Members Posts: 204 Joined: 29-June 05 Member No.: 421 |
What's the general consensus (or is there any?) on whether these objects (Nix, Hydra and P4) are all moons that formed following a large impact on either Charon or Pluto? This is answered in the article linked in the first post of this thread: QUOTE The dwarf planet’ s entire moon system is believed to have formed by a collision between Pluto and another planet- sized body early in the history of the solar system. The smashup flung material that coalesced into the family of satellites observed around Pluto. |
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Jul 21 2011, 04:24 PM
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#22
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Member Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 29-August 06 From: Columbia, MD Member No.: 1083 |
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Jul 23 2011, 08:21 AM
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#23
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 57 Joined: 21-September 06 Member No.: 1172 |
Pluto's P4 moon is now available at SSD Horizons (body ID: 904)
NH closest approach to P4 will take place 2015-Jul-14 12:03 CT at distance of 67000 km. |
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Jul 23 2011, 05:27 PM
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#24
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2086 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
So that means P4 will appear just a little smaller than the simulation on page 1; still way better then a point of light!
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Jul 23 2011, 05:34 PM
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#25
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
It would appear just a little smaller if NH were to image it exactly at closest approach. That's not likely to be the case given other observation timings and priorities.
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Jul 24 2011, 02:36 AM
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#26
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
Also, the orbit used to make that calculation may not yet be accurate enough to determine precisely where it'll be four years from now...
-------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Jul 24 2011, 04:41 AM
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#27
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
LOL, when the accurate orbit becomes available, I bet the savy simulation wranglers here find a stunning Kodak moment or two.
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Jul 24 2011, 08:45 AM
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#28
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 57 Joined: 21-September 06 Member No.: 1172 |
Also, the orbit used to make that calculation may not yet be accurate enough to determine precisely where it'll be four years from now... All Pluto's moons are orbiting at strongly resonant orbits. Nix, P4 and Hydra periods are multiples of the Charon-Pluto orbital period (as 1:4:5:6 to be precise) and therefore actual orbital position can not drift too much from predicted one. Actual flyby viewing geometry will be quite close to the mentioned above. |
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Jul 25 2011, 09:34 PM
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#29
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Member Group: Members Posts: 146 Joined: 23-August 06 From: Vriezenveen, Netherlands Member No.: 1067 |
Am I right that the orbit of Pluto's fourth moon is much more elliptical and much more inclined?
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Aug 16 2011, 09:15 PM
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#30
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Member Group: Members Posts: 529 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
More on P4 (and NH too) in this radio interview aired today: http://howonearthradio.org/archives/1092 |
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Sep 6 2012, 09:34 PM
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#31
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Member Group: Members Posts: 115 Joined: 8-January 05 From: Austin | Texas Member No.: 138 |
2015 is going to be a really exciting year with the Dawn mission reaching Ceres and New Horizons exploring the Pluto system.
2015 year of the Dwarf Planet. |
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