New Horizons at Io |
New Horizons at Io |
Feb 24 2007, 07:53 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3233 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Since the New Horizons Jupiter Encounter thread is already getting pretty long, I decided to create a thread dedicated to New Horizons' observations of the most interesting object in the solar system: Io. Info on upcoming observations comes from the jupiter_timeline_static.xls document john_s posted, and the preview images are from Celestia (note that each image is scaled so that the pixel scale is ~correct, and represents a smaller FOV than LORRI)
Today, February 24, New Horizons conducts three observations of Io with the LORRI camera as well some observations of Io's atmosphere with ALICE. These observations have the lowest phase angle for Io of the entire encounter. Phase angle continues to increase as NH approaches Jupiter and Io. The first observation, ISunMon1, shows Io's sub-Jovian hemisphere (Clat=5.5 S, Clon=340.2 W) from a distance of 7,856,307 km. The resolution with LORRI would be 38.8 km/pixel. Pele is on the limb at lower right and Masubi is on the limb at lower left. Ra Patera is near center. The second observation, ISunMon2, also shows Io's sub-Jovian hemisphere (Clat=5.5 S, Clon=15.1 W) from a distance of 7,575,510 km. The resolution with LORRI would be 37.5 km/pixel. The Tvashtar plume might be poking above the limb at upper left. The third observation, ISunMon3, shows Io's leading hemisphere (Clat=6.0 S, Clon=84.7 W) from a distance of 6,627,459 km. The resolution with LORRI would be 32.8 km/pixel. The Zamama plume might be visible just above center on the left limb. It only gets better from here. Not sure how NH downlink works, but there is a DSN window right after the last Io observation, hopefully at least one frame from each observation will be returned. Maybe they can do the Huffman window right around where Io is... Tomorrow contains four more observations of Io, highlighting Pele and an eclipse. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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May 1 2007, 08:05 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3233 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Based on just eyeballing these hotspot images, I could find the following hotspots (better stuff coming later):
From http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPho.../050107_08.html: Pele Reiden E. Girru (the mystery volcano John mentioned in the press conference) N. Lerna Ra Patera Amaterasu Patera Cast of dozens (sub-Jovian crew) From http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPho.../050107_04.html: Tvashtar Amirani Prometheus Culann Tupan Malik Shamash Unnamed volcano at 42.5 South, 174.5 West (Southwestern Mycenae Regio) Hotspot north of Prometheus (Chaac or Sobo) Zamama Maybe another hotspot just south of Tvashtar (Thor or Savitr), could be scattered light though From http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/p.../Spencer_06.jpg: Pele Reiden E. Girru Isum Donar Mulungu Pillan Zamama Marduk Unnamed volcano at 10 South, 217.5 West Culann Prometheus In the third image, you can see Io's anti-Jovian hemisphere in Europa-shine, particularly revealing the albedo features near Isum Patera, Donar Fluctus, and Colchis Regio. Like a similar Galileo image, bright material in the northern reaches of Lei-Kung Fluctus is glowing...ummm, why???? SO2 sublimation perhaps... or deposition? -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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May 1 2007, 08:51 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
The Tvashtar plume being visible in this IR view caught me by surprise.
Seems like it would enable this analysis: We can see what temperature the plume "snow" is as a function of where in the plume it is. That should tell us the particle size (or thermal inertia, anyway) because it tells us the rate at which the particles cool in the vacuum of near-Io space. Yes? |
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