Pluto's 4th moon |
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Pluto's 4th moon |
 Jul 20 2011, 01:55 PM
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#1
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 Senior Member  Group: Moderator Posts: 2605 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: 3534 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: 902 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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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 12 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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 Member Group: Members Posts: 618 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Vancouver, British Columbia 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.
-------------------- 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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Jul 20 2011, 04:32 PM
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#6
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 12 Joined: 10-July 11 Member No.: 6055 |
QUOTE (Explorer1 @ Jul 20 2011, 09:31 AM)  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: 3534 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: 419 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: 3534 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: 31 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: 486 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: 4495 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Sloughhouse, CA 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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Member Group: Members Posts: 618 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Vancouver, British Columbia 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.
-------------------- 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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Jul 20 2011, 09:46 PM
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#14
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 555 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: 419 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
QUOTE (machi @ Jul 20 2011, 10:46 PM) Fantastic news! New Horizons flyby of Pluto more and more looks like Voyager's flybys of giant planets. So many targets! Yep, five targets, minimum, plus searches for new moons and searches for rings. We're going to be busy! |
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