New Horizons Pluto System Final Approach, 28 Jun-13 Jul 15 |
New Horizons Pluto System Final Approach, 28 Jun-13 Jul 15 |
Jun 28 2015, 08:08 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
More than nine years in flight, many more years before that in the making--this is the time. Please post all comments related to New Horizon's passage through the Pluto system here.
What to expect Reminder that despite the rather brief duration of the actual encounter, it will be literally months before all acquired data is returned so this thread will be active for an equivalent time. Intrepid TPS space journalist and UMSF admin Emily Lakdawalla has written an excellent guide to planned imagery activities. EDIT: Updated version of guide. Emily has also produced a simulation of the kinds of images that are anticipated. FAQs Most Forum members are advanced spaceflight enthusiasts; many are in fact professionals in space-related disciplines. Accordingly, there are no plans to post answers to questions that can be easily answered via a Google search, and we ask that everyone please attempt to do so before posting a question. EDIT (4 Jul 15): Admin Astro0 has produced an extensive New Horizons FAQ thread. EDIT: Review rule 1.9 and keep it firmly in mind before posting. Posts violating that rule will be deleted without notice. ____ With all that said, the most important thing by far is to witness the marvel of discovery, of exploration, of New Horizons on worlds never before seen. This is the best seat in the house for doing so, right in the comfort of our own homes. As with previous major events in planetary exploration over the past decade it is likely that not only professionals but also the press may be watching the Forum during the coming days due to its hard-earned reputation as a place for noise-free commentary and stunning contributions by amateur image processors, so please bear this in mind... ...and I can't stop smiling with anticipation and excitement. What marvelous things we will soon see. Enjoy the ride!!! -------------------- 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 1 2015, 11:51 PM
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IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2251 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38 |
Specular reflections are very unlikely in my opinion, also they would be more likely to be visible at high phase angles.
Here is my version of the 2015-07-01 images, a stack of 5 images. For the first time I stacked Pluto and Charon separately using the 2015-07-01 04:17:10 image as reference. The image is enlarged by a factor of 3. The details in this version of these images are consistent with the images already posted here. Now the resolution is improving rapidly, there is a big difference from the June 29 images. It is now pretty clear that the dark terrain isn't continuous around Pluto's equatorial region and there are now also clear hints of bright terrain south of the dark terrain. Since the dark terrain now covers several pixels in the original JPGs it is now possible to measure its brightness more accurately than earlier. The bright terrain is ~3 times brighter than the dark terrain. Pluto's 'dark' polar cap is very subtle in the original JPGs but it is defnitely visible there. Pluto is now starting to remind me more of Triton than it did 1-2 weeks ago. Charon is looking steadily more interesting and is now as big in the images as Pluto was in mid-June. The large dark markings in the processed images are real and there are possible hints of an irregular light-dark boundary. |
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