New Horizons: Pre-launch, launch and main cruise, Pluto and the Kuiper belt |
New Horizons: Pre-launch, launch and main cruise, Pluto and the Kuiper belt |
Apr 19 2014, 05:30 AM
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#1621
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Pluto and Charon are already visible as pixels from NH, They're visible as more than that in ground based observatories. 'Close' to Pluto though NH may already be, and amazing though LORRI is - for KBO searching it doesn't come close to the capabilities of larger ground based observatories for large area surveys. |
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Apr 19 2014, 11:15 PM
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#1622
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Member Group: Members Posts: 532 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
What Doug said is exactly right.
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Apr 27 2014, 08:30 PM
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#1623
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1018 Joined: 29-November 05 From: Seattle, WA, USA Member No.: 590 |
Are they good enough to reduce the uncertainty in the position of Pluto? I remember a discussion here some years ago that NH might need to take photos over a very large area due to uncertainty about the exact position of Pluto. I've always hated the thought of wasting any precious photos on blank space, so I keep hoping that as NH gets closer, it itself will provide better data. I know I've asked before, but I don't think it was ever possible to give a definitive answer.
One year out, how do you feel about the photo plan? |
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Apr 28 2014, 10:55 AM
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#1624
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Member Group: Members Posts: 532 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
New Horizons will begin conducting optical navigation to home in on Pluto this summer. ALMA Pluto interferometry is also going into the mix on the orbit solution. Additional optical nav imagery from NH begins to regularly stream in in January.
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Apr 29 2014, 06:50 AM
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#1625
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Member Group: Members Posts: 204 Joined: 29-June 05 Member No.: 421 |
Are there plans to re-measure the source stars for past Pluto occultations, with ALMA or otherwise? It seems like any improvement of the astrometry of those stars ought to translate one-to-one as an improvement in knowledge of the location of Pluto on the date of the occultation.
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Apr 29 2014, 10:12 AM
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#1626
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Member Group: Members Posts: 532 Joined: 19-February 05 Member No.: 173 |
No such plans, but that's a novel idea. I don't believe it's been suggested previously.
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Apr 29 2014, 01:07 PM
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#1627
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
I guess GAIA is too late for that?
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Apr 29 2014, 02:59 PM
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#1628
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Member Group: Members Posts: 544 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
GAIA will probably observe all those stars multiple times over the next year, but in order to set them in a reference frame it needs to add in all the other stellar observations it's been making, particularly quaser locations. Or at least that's the plan for the overall project. So my guess would be, yeah, too late to start all that now. But it might be worth checking with ESA all the same.
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Sep 22 2014, 09:18 PM
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#1629
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IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2254 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38 |
Now that New Horizons is very late in its cruise phase and things are happening at an increasingly rapid pace it's time for a new main NH thread here. The relatively recent late cruise thread is here.
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