NH at Jupiter, Planning the Jupiter encounter |
NH at Jupiter, Planning the Jupiter encounter |
Jan 22 2006, 10:57 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 3-December 04 From: Boulder, Colorado, USA Member No.: 117 |
I think the Jupiter encounter deserves its own thread.
I've just been taking a first look at the Jupiter encounter geometry. You can do the same using Mark Showalter's excellent on-line ephemeris tools at the PDS rings node, which by good fortune happens to include a New Horizons ephemeris (calculated over a year ago) for our actual launch date, January 19th. We'll have an updated ephemeris soon, but this one's already good enough for planning. As Roby72 noted in the Star 48 thread, the satellites are (annoyingly) all on the opposite side of Jupiter at closest approach. We'll still get good views of all sides of Io because Io rotates in only 1.8 days and we'll be pretty close to Jupiter for that long. We'll get fairly good coverage on Europa too, for the same reason. But we won't get very close to Ganymede or Callisto. Luckily Io is our highest priority satellite target and Europa is next, so we'll do OK. |
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Jan 28 2006, 08:41 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Does anyone know what Voyager/Galileo images will be comparable to the Horizons?
I'm trying to get a idea of what to expect. Also will we get enough Jupiter imaging to create Voyager approach type movies? |
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Jan 28 2006, 11:36 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (Decepticon @ Jan 28 2006, 09:41 PM) Does anyone know what Voyager/Galileo images will be comparable to the Horizons? I'm trying to get a idea of what to expect. Also will we get enough Jupiter imaging to create Voyager approach type movies? My impression from what I've read so far is that NH isn't set up to obtain close-up imaging data from the illuminated portion of Jupiter and it's satellites, but will do well in 'Jupiter-shine' images of the satellites. Remember that NH is designed to explore a dark, dark place, rather than one that's just a bit dim! Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Feb 5 2006, 05:22 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 3-December 04 From: Boulder, Colorado, USA Member No.: 117 |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Jan 28 2006, 11:36 PM) My impression from what I've read so far is that NH isn't set up to obtain close-up imaging data from the illuminated portion of Jupiter and it's satellites, but will do well in 'Jupiter-shine' images of the satellites. Remember that NH is designed to explore a dark, dark place, rather than one that's just a bit dim! Bob Shaw Actually, we've just figured out that we can probably take unsaturated daytime images with our telephoto camera (LORRI), though we won't know for sure until we can do some tests in flight. So we hope to get some nice B/W dayside images of the satellites after all. We're still stuck with dayside saturation in our color camera, MVIC, though, so our only color images of Io will be taken in Jupiter shine, and will thus (obviously) cover only the Jupiter-facing hemisphere. Here's a simulation of some of our best views of the four Galileans, from LORRI (highest resolution), MVIC (color, though only B/W in this simulation, and saturated on most of the daysides), and LEISA (where every pixel represents a 1.2 - 2.5 micron near-infrared spectrum). The geometry is pretty accurate. I've brightened up the nightside of Io so you can see what volcanos might be glowing in the dark there. |
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Feb 10 2006, 04:50 AM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 87 Joined: 19-June 05 Member No.: 415 |
QUOTE (john_s @ Feb 5 2006, 11:22 AM) Actually, we've just figured out that we can probably take unsaturated daytime images with our telephoto camera (LORRI), though we won't know for sure until we can do some tests in flight. What would happen if you tried to take color images with MVIC and looked at the Methane band? It is pretty narrow, so the signal level is much lower. While you might get back three bands of saturated images, this one might be usable. The question then would be if it would be USEFUL and worthwhile. |
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Feb 10 2006, 11:16 AM
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#6
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
I remember seeing an article about New Horizons possibly being able to encounter an outer moon, such the mention of Himalia earlier, should one be located serendipitously in the right area. Now that NH is on its way, as anyone looked into any possibilities?
Ted -------------------- |
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