Where is New Horizons now |
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Where is New Horizons now |
 Dec 3 2011, 08:10 PM
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#196
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 Senior Member  Group: Members Posts: 2929 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542  |
How about "hyperbolically"?
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Dec 3 2011, 08:20 PM
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#197
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Member Group: Members Posts: 419 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
QUOTE (Greg Hullender @ Dec 3 2011, 08:44 PM)  The caption on the picture says Pluto will expand "exponentially" as NH gets near, but I think it'll really only expand linearly as a function of time (if we're talking radius) or geometrically, if we're talking area. --Greg Yes, cringe. I proofed the release and images but not their captions. Sigh. |
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Dec 3 2011, 08:59 PM
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#198
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2929 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
I honestly don't think it's so bad. The term 'exponentially' has acquired a non-mathematical sense in common parlance, meaning no more than 'at an ever-increasing rate'. Besides, the independent variable is not specified. It doesn't have to be time. It could mean 'The larger Pluto appears the faster that image will be expanding' - which is true, surely. Certainly it will expand a lot more during the second half of the remaining journey than during the first half.
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Dec 3 2011, 09:55 PM
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#199
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 6474 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Well put, Nigel; thank you.
I'd say that this particular dead horse has been beaten into an advanced state of decomposition; further blows are unnecessary. Alan, congratulations to you and the NH team for reaching this milestone! 
-------------------- 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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Dec 3 2011, 10:58 PM
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#200
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2929 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
The long wait for the Pluto encounter raises interesting questions about the way we respond to events. It will be too slow. . until, suddenly, it's too fast! But then, thankfully, there will be the science in its own good time.
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Dec 11 2011, 09:13 AM
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#201
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1101 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Seattle Member No.: 530 |
QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Sep 25 2010, 07:24 PM) We're actively looking for a Neptune Trojan to fly by, but the statistics make it clear we have only a TINY, TINY shot at it. What we can do is to develop phase curves on one or more, we hope-- now that Scott Shepard is finding Trojans in the L4 cloud we'll actually fly through. Of course, such imaging won't resolve the targets unless we get VERY lucky and have one VERY close to our nominal course, in which case I'd consider spending fuel to make a REAL flyby. But even the phase curve science is unique and we're looking forward to performing it ca. 2013-2015. From Twitter: @NewHorizons2015: Did you know that New Horizons is flying right through the L5 Trojan cloud of Neptune ? We're looking luck with a flyby tgt there in 2014. Too cryptic! |
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Dec 11 2011, 04:06 PM
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#202
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 6474 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Mmm...I don't read it that way. Seems like a simple, concise (of course, since it's a tweet) repeat of Alan's explanation.
Gotta remember that the Lagrange regions are BIG, and any objects stuck in them basically are doing complex orbits around the L points themselves. So, the odds of NH encountering a Trojan, while non-zero, are definitely not good at all. -------------------- 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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Dec 11 2011, 05:39 PM
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#203
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1967 Joined: 28-December 04 Member No.: 132 |
The tweet lacks the extreme qualifiers (TINY, TINY shot at it... VERY lucky... VERY close) of the post here. Is that solely because of space requirements or have chances improved to the point that qualifiers in all caps are no longer needed?
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Dec 12 2011, 12:34 AM
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#204
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 6474 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
 ...don't get too hung up on reading the tea leaves, guys. I'm sure Alan will let us know IF (and I think it unlikely in the extreme) there's any shot at all of doing this.
-------------------- 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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Dec 12 2011, 05:08 AM
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#205
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 618 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Vancouver, British Columbia Member No.: 5221 |
Even another APL would be decent, to be perfectly honest.
But hey, that's what the Kuiper Belt phase is for, right? 
-------------------- To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither centre nor boundary... Thus the Earth no more than any other world is at the centre. -Giordano Bruno, 1584.
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