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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ New Horizons _ New Horizons Jupiter Encounter

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Jan 10 2007, 09:47 PM

I thought I'd start a new thread for this:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/011007.htm
January 10, 2007

Posted by: climber Jan 10 2007, 10:44 PM

I didn't realize encounter will be up to June.
Do you have material yet to open such a topic for Roseta that will fligh by Mars on feb 27th?
Exciting times once again...

Posted by: djellison Jan 11 2007, 10:22 AM

New Horizons launched on Jan 19th 2006 and will fly past Jupiter on Feb 28th.

Comet McNaught pass the orbit of Jupiter about 10 days after the NH Launch - and will be on the way back out, crossing the orbit of Venus when NH makes it's closest approach to Jupiter.

I don't think there's much chance of a competative race on the way back out again though ohmy.gif

Doug

Posted by: ugordan Jan 11 2007, 10:32 AM

QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 11 2007, 11:22 AM) *
I don't think there's much chance of a competative race on the way back out again though ohmy.gif

Not a chance. McNaught is on a very slightly hyperbolic trajectory, but NH will be on a major solar escape trajectory after Jupiter. Poor comet doesn't stand a chance of catching up. smile.gif

Posted by: djellison Jan 11 2007, 10:50 AM

To Plutonian distances - McNaught is several years behind NH - quite something really.

Doug

Posted by: general Jan 15 2007, 07:55 PM

How come NH is slowing down, now that it's approaching Jupiter? Its speed used to be 20+ km/s, but the last few weeks it's down to 19.9 km/s, and going slower by the day (currently 19.84 km/s). I'd think it would go faster and faster as it is pulled towards Jupiter.

Posted by: djellison Jan 15 2007, 08:02 PM

The 'sphere of influence' for Jupiter hasn't been reached yet - the actual gravity assist period isn't very long.

Doug

Posted by: climber Jan 15 2007, 11:43 PM

Call it aphelium of the Hohmann orbit...
(ok, I've got some help from "The Basics of Spaceflight" for the orthograf, but what's wrong with that ?) biggrin.gif

Posted by: remcook Jan 16 2007, 09:36 AM

QUOTE (climber @ Jan 15 2007, 11:43 PM) *
Call it aphelium of the Hohmann orbit...


ehm..no biggrin.gif Which aphelium? We're talking hyperbolic orbits here tongue.gif

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 16 2007, 11:49 AM

QUOTE (remcook @ Jan 16 2007, 09:36 AM) *
ehm..no biggrin.gif Which aphelium? We're talking hyperbolic orbits here tongue.gif



Hahaha!


Bob Shaw

Posted by: climber Jan 17 2007, 07:18 AM

QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Jan 16 2007, 12:49 PM) *
Hahaha!
Bob Shaw

Hahaha !

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Jan 18 2007, 06:22 PM

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_07012_New_Horizons.html
RELEASE: 07-012
NASA/JHUAPL
January 18, 2007

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/011807.htm
January 18, 2007

Jupiter Flyby Press Kit (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/common/content/pdfs/011607_JupiterPressKit.pdf)

Posted by: stevesliva Jan 18 2007, 07:08 PM

The Jupiter & Io LORRI photo caption mentions less turbulence in the Jovian Atmosphere than expected... can someone perhaps put Jupiters seasons in perspective, along with where in the Jovian year NH is vs. when Galileo was there?

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/JupiterAndIo.html

Posted by: volcanopele Jan 18 2007, 07:12 PM

I didn't think Jupiter had seasons per se, since Jupiter (and its satellites) have only a negligible axial tilt. Jupiter's cloud belts and zones go through changes in albedo and amount of turbulence all the time, and I don't think they are tied to seasons. Compare images of Jupiter from the Pioneers, Voyagers, Hubble, Galileo, and now NH.

Posted by: yaohua2000 Jan 18 2007, 11:11 PM

QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 16 2007, 04:02 AM) *
The 'sphere of influence' for Jupiter hasn't been reached yet - the actual gravity assist period isn't very long.

Doug


I made this page one year earlier, and could be useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:New_Horizons/Magic_numbers/2006-Jan-24

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 18 2007, 11:18 PM

Did anyone else watch the press conference? I was sitting in my living room waiting for it to show up on NASA TV, but NASA TV resolutely continued showing archival footage of Apollo 11 up to and past 10 am. I ran to the NASA website and discovered that the press conference was being carried not on their "Public channel" but on their "media channel" -- I guess they now have two channels, which may allow them to put out more stuff, but DirecTV doesn't carry their media channel! Fortunately I figured it out in time and got a good stream on the media channel to watch it on my computer. That was scary for a minute, though.

I've http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000834/ the conference, but didn't mention one thing I found annoying -- a graphic showing New Horizons' speed through the encounter, which used only Imperial units. Of course American missions have to use Imperial units when they address the public, but it's irksome when they don't also include metric. I redrew the graphic with metric units, but didn't wind up using it for the blog, so I'll post it here.

--Emily

 

Posted by: helvick Jan 18 2007, 11:31 PM

Helluva rollercoaster ride that. smile.gif

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 18 2007, 11:44 PM

biggrin.gif Indeed...I guess New Horizons is now entering that part of the roller coaster ride that goes "tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick" up the first big hill...

--Emily

Posted by: yaohua2000 Jan 18 2007, 11:46 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 19 2007, 07:18 AM) *
Did anyone else watch the press conference? I was sitting in my living room waiting for it to show up on NASA TV, but NASA TV resolutely continued showing archival footage of Apollo 11 up to and past 10 am. I ran to the NASA website and discovered that the press conference was being carried not on their "Public channel" but on their "media channel" -- I guess they now have two channels, which may allow them to put out more stuff, but DirecTV doesn't carry their media channel! Fortunately I figured it out in time and got a good stream on the media channel to watch it on my computer. That was scary for a minute, though.

I've http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000834/ the conference, but didn't mention one thing I found annoying -- a graphic showing New Horizons' speed through the encounter, which used only Imperial units. Of course American missions have to use Imperial units when they address the public, but it's irksome when they don't also include metric. I redrew the graphic with metric units, but didn't wind up using it for the blog, so I'll post it here.

--Emily


I think it would be better to be km/s. I can't read km/h for celestial bodies, can you? blink.gif

Posted by: djellison Jan 18 2007, 11:48 PM

I missed it totally ( hope spaceflightnow.com put it up soon ) - but read on the blog that John was kind enough to mention (although thankfully for slashdot like reasons, not by name) the contribution some members here made in finding some nice Kodak moments smile.gif

Doug

Posted by: dvandorn Jan 18 2007, 11:56 PM

I will point out that in the "NASA Gallery" segments on NASA-TV during overnights, they often replay recent press conferences. Sometimes over and over.

So, it's quite possible that those with access to NASA-TV will be able to catch the press conference at some point this evening (or in the wee hours of tomorrow morning) in replay.

-the other Doug

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 19 2007, 12:02 AM

Here you go, a minute and a half from the conference of John Spencer acknowledging the amateurs, recorded with my cruddy little voice recorder. Enjoy. smile.gif

--Emily

 20070118_new_horizons_press_conf.mp3 ( 347.96K ) : 1668
 

Posted by: Sunspot Jan 19 2007, 01:30 AM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 18 2007, 11:18 PM) *
Did anyone else watch the press conference? I was sitting in my living room waiting for it to show up on NASA TV, but NASA TV resolutely continued showing archival footage of Apollo 11 up to and past 10 am. I ran to the NASA website and discovered that the press conference was being carried not on their "Public channel" but on their "media channel" -- I guess they now have two channels, which may allow them to put out more stuff, but DirecTV doesn't carry their media channel! Fortunately I figured it out in time and got a good stream on the media channel to watch it on my computer. That was scary for a minute, though.
--Emily


This happened to me.. I missed the first 8 minutes because I thought it had been canceled, then found the "media channel"

Posted by: ugordan Jan 19 2007, 10:13 AM

Umm... is there a link to the native resolution version of that cool Jupiter and Io image? What's the point of providing a magnified "hi-res" image like that? If one were writing a wish-list, I'd put lossless PNGs as well, but let's not get greedy here biggrin.gif

Posted by: climber Jan 19 2007, 10:24 AM

That's the advantage of NOT been able to get NasaTV other than with my computer biggrin.gif
I watched most of the conference and I liked it very much. People were both very present and quite relaxed, just enjoying the conference and the start of the fly by; very confident in the plans as well as in the spacecraft. I realized that quite a part of the encounter has been developped pretty late. Did I get correctly when Alan said that they'll push NH capabilies during Jupiter fly by even MORE than it'll be pushed when it'll get to Pluto?
Go NH, go ( wheel.gif )

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 19 2007, 04:38 PM

In some senses, Alan said, they were pushing the spacecraft: they have twice as many observations planned for the Jupiter flyby as for their current straw-man Pluto plan (each observation may consist of multiple measurements). He said that based upon the spacecraft's performance, they may increase or reduce the number of observations at Pluto. However, there are some things they'll be doing at Pluto that they won't at Jupiter. For instance, the Pluto plan will have "retargetable" blocks, points in the science plan where the science team can optionally choose different observations, depending upon what they see during approach. They didn't have time to plan that sort of thing for Jupiter.

--Emily

Posted by: djellison Jan 19 2007, 04:42 PM

It is on Spaceflightnow.com as a MOV now (I don't know what I'd do without my subscription to that place) - I wonder how many kodak hendric moments made it into the sequencing.

Doug

Posted by: Littlebit Jan 19 2007, 07:44 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 18 2007, 04:18 PM) *
I've http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000834/ the conference, but didn't mention one thing I found annoying -- a graphic showing New Horizons' speed through the encounter, which used only Imperial units. Of course American missions have to use Imperial units when they address the public, but it's irksome when they don't also include metric. I redrew the graphic with metric units, but didn't wind up using it for the blog, so I'll post it here.

Is the date in Greenwich, NY, Texas or Pasadena 'units' unsure.gif

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 19 2007, 08:01 PM

That's a good question. It would seem unlikely that such a graph would be anything but spacecraft time, which would be UT, but I don't actually know.

--Emily

Posted by: JRehling Jan 19 2007, 08:21 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 19 2007, 08:38 AM) *
For instance, the Pluto plan will have "retargetable" blocks, points in the science plan where the science team can optionally choose different observations, depending upon what they see during approach. They didn't have time to plan that sort of thing for Jupiter.

--Emily


That's interesting. Of course, Jupiter has already been the subject of six spacecrafts' imagery and is an easy target for HST, so for the most part, there wouldn't be the same call for change of plan -- a big Io eruption withstanding.

Making last-minute calls during the Pluto encounter could be a gritty affair. Given two alternatives, whatever you choose NOT to observe is going to remain unknown for a long time. Unlike the MERs, you can't sit still for an arbitrary amount of time and hash it out by committe. No pressure on the mission team, though!

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Jan 19 2007, 10:05 PM

Pluto Mission News
January 19, 2007
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

Press Conference Replay

Missed the Jupiter flyby press conference on Jan. 18? Catch the replay this weekend on NASA TV! The event is scheduled to run on the NASA Media and Public channels at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (Eastern Time) on both Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 20-21).

Click http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html for video links and schedule information.

Posted by: Analyst Jan 20 2007, 08:29 AM

This is a question for someone from the New Horizons team (Mr. Stern?): Could you publish (pdf) a detailed Jupiter encounter timeline (e.g. which instrument does what at a specific time, spacecraft turns, SSR data volume etc.)? Like the preliminary encounter document posted here last summer. Your flyby press kit is, well, for the general press smile.gif, but not very detailed in respect to the encounter sequence. Thank you.

Analyst

Posted by: mars loon Jan 20 2007, 06:20 PM

I enjoyed watching the press conference live. Lots of great info and insights. And it was quite a nice kudo to see the welcome mat for amateurs as they pointedly encouraged suggestions for "kodak moments" and other observations

Plus brand new images and animations, most of which are available here.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/011807_pressGraphics.htm

ken

Posted by: JRehling Jan 20 2007, 07:42 PM

Not to moan at a joyous time, but damn that luck of Callisto and Ganymede being on the opposite side of Jupiter! Callisto could have been a huge looming disc for NH, and it ended up being almost worst-case faraway instead!

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 20 2007, 07:55 PM

That 2nd poster is very nice ... something for the store ? cool.gif
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/posters.php

Posted by: john_s Jan 20 2007, 09:49 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 19 2007, 08:01 PM) *
That's a good question. It would seem unlikely that such a graph would be anything but spacecraft time, which would be UT, but I don't actually know.

--Emily


I think we're using UT (and spacecraft time, not Earth received time which is 45 minutes later) in all our graphics unless otherwise stated.

John.

Posted by: john_s Jan 20 2007, 10:11 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 19 2007, 10:13 AM) *
Umm... is there a link to the native resolution version of that cool Jupiter and Io image? What's the point of providing a magnified "hi-res" image like that? If one were writing a wish-list, I'd put lossless PNGs as well, but let's not get greedy here biggrin.gif


We should be posting all the images in JPEG format and native resolution on the NH web site in a few days- stay tuned!

Regarding making more observations at Jupiter than at Pluto, mostly it's just because we can- the Jupiter system is so much bigger so there's a longer period in which we can get useful data. But as Alan said, it's also a great way to push the system so we can expose and fix any weakenesses.

Finally, here's a recent timeline spreadsheet for you to chew on- this is one of our working documents for planning the encounter. It's not quite the final version- there have been a few timeline tweaks in the couple of weeks since this version- but it's pretty close. The data volumes and numbers of frames per observation are early estimates and shouldn't be relied on, but give some idea of what's planned.
 Jupiter_obs_configure_rev10.xls ( 481K ) : 1651

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 20 2007, 10:14 PM

Thank you so much John!! I'll see if I can produce a slimmed-down timeline to post on our website.

What are those Callirrhoe opnavs? Has New Horizons actually sighted its first non-Pluto KBO already? ohmy.gif

--Emily

Posted by: john_s Jan 20 2007, 10:46 PM

Callirrhoe is one of the newly discovered small outer satellites of Jupiter- we looked at it because it's about the same brightness as our KBO target is likely to be when we first pick it up on approach in 2019 or whenever. So it was a test of our ability to pick up a very faint moving target using long exposures.

Posted by: djellison Jan 20 2007, 10:49 PM

A nice handfull of Kodak's - I'm really proud that UMSF was able to contribute in some tiny way - this will rank up there with the MOC Deimos observation in terms of wow factor.

Doug

Posted by: helvick Jan 20 2007, 11:02 PM

I think these are Kodak moments where the time in MJD ties back to suggestions by hendric.

Line 031 54117.06319 Double shadow Transit
Line 034 54124.19514 Double shadow Transit
Line 110 54159.48961 IO Emerging from behind Jupiter
Line 143 54161.43332 Io/Europa conjunction
Line 165 54163.17200 Callisto emerging from behind Jupiter

Awesome. If I'm counting correctly the spreadsheet says these will take up 251Mbits of LORRI raw storage. Wow.

Posted by: djellison Jan 20 2007, 11:24 PM

Line 110 54159.48961 IO Emerging from behind Jupiter




Line 143 54161.43332 Io/Europa conjunction



Line 165 54163.17200 Callisto emerging from behind Jupiter

Posted by: helvick Jan 20 2007, 11:45 PM

These shots represent around 0.5% of the total data return for the mission (in terms of bits of data returned). If you were to price all the bits returned by the mission equally then you could argue that these shots are worth around $30 million for the set.

I take it we're going to be getting high quality prints and expensive frames for them then?. smile.gif

Posted by: JRehling Jan 21 2007, 01:03 AM

QUOTE (helvick @ Jan 20 2007, 03:45 PM) *
These shots represent around 0.5% of the total data return for the mission (in terms of bits of data returned). If you were to price all the bits returned by the mission equally then you could argue that these shots are worth around $30 million for the set.


I'll sell you all of the black pixels now for only $300.

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 21 2007, 01:25 AM

A brief word to all the NH lurkers on UMSF:

Keep up the good work! We're with you...

And post them images real soon now, OK?


Bob Shaw

Posted by: hendric Jan 21 2007, 08:06 AM

I hope those Kodak moments come out well; I'm not sure how well the models show the edge of Jupiter's atmosphere. Seeing the refraction of the moons through the atmosphere will be pretty cool though!

Seeing the images starting to come in from this flyby has me missing Galileo...Jupiter, to me, is the most photogenic place in the solar system, with its dynamic weather and unique moons.

I know we send probes for science, and to answer questions, but I feel that visiting beautiful places is always a worthwhile endeavor.

Posted by: Analyst Jan 21 2007, 08:12 AM

Thank you very much for the timeline, John.

Analyst

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 21 2007, 05:54 PM

How will the Jupiter flyby affect the speed of New Horizons?
Will it really become the fastest traveling spacecraft ever? huh.gif

Posted by: yaohua2000 Jan 21 2007, 07:08 PM

QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Jan 22 2007, 01:54 AM) *
quote in reply! removed


No.

The solar probe Helios 2 was the fastest travelling spacecraft ever, at about 69 km/s relative to the Sun. I do not think any outer solar system probes in near future could have a higher speed.

Posted by: helvick Jan 21 2007, 08:13 PM

That's true but Helios remains in orbit around the Sun so despite having an exceptionally high sun relative velocity at perihelion it does not have enough oribital energy to leave the solar system. In that sense it is not as "fast" as NH which is on an escape trajectory (or will be once it gets that boost from Jupiter).

Posted by: ugordan Jan 21 2007, 08:46 PM

Exactly, if we're talking about highest speeds on equal terms, we should consider hyperbolic escape velocities.

Posted by: Analyst Jan 21 2007, 09:13 PM

And then Voyager 1 is and will remain the fastest.

Posted by: climber Jan 22 2007, 09:48 AM

Agree on escape trajectory, nevertheless, for the fun of it, what object was the fastest ever : could it be Jupiter's probe from Galileo ?

Posted by: Analyst Jan 22 2007, 11:58 AM

QUOTE (climber @ Jan 22 2007, 10:48 AM) *
What object was the fastest ever?


Relative to what? Sun, Earth, Jupiter ...?

Posted by: ugordan Jan 22 2007, 12:24 PM

QUOTE (Analyst @ Jan 22 2007, 12:58 PM) *
Relative to what? Sun, Earth, Jupiter ...?

Galactic center?

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 22 2007, 12:57 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 22 2007, 12:24 PM) *
Galactic center?


Great Attractor?

Seriously, though, velocity at departure from Earth might be one way of doing it - or even days in flight/distance from Earth (aha! which side of the orbit... ...oh, bother!).


Bob Shaw

Posted by: ugordan Jan 22 2007, 01:06 PM

Bob, in that case it would be more fitting to talk about energy, not velocity, specifically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristic_energy. A smaller payload can get propelled faster so energies are a better way to directly compare things. Talking about speed is just a way to invoke that "oooh" factor in laymen, nothing else.
It's All Relative ™, anyway...

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 22 2007, 01:22 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 22 2007, 01:06 PM) *
Bob, in that case it would be more fitting to talk about energy, not velocity, specifically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristic_energy. A smaller payload can get propelled faster so energies are a better way to directly compare things. Talking about speed is just a way to invoke that "oooh" factor in laymen, nothing else.
It's All Relative ™, anyway...


Yes, I'd been idly musing in that direction... ...really, we'd need a new unit of energy, too - something comparable to area (the Wales) or mass (the US Naval Destroyer).


Bob Shaw

Posted by: climber Jan 22 2007, 02:01 PM

QUOTE (Analyst @ Jan 22 2007, 12:58 PM) *
Relative to what? Sun, Earth, Jupiter ...?

Well, I've got the point of "relative to what..." but, my dear Analyst, on the post before mine you said "And then Voyager 1 is and will remain the fastest." So, for man made objects, what about gain of acceleration since launch? Does it make sense to you? Beware : wheel.gif doesn't count biggrin.gif

Posted by: Del Palmer Jan 22 2007, 02:35 PM

I've uploaded an audio recording of the press briefing for anyone who missed it:
http://www.cafesociety.uk.com/other/New-Horizons-Jupiter.mp3
(right-click on the link and select "Save Target As..." to download.

Perhaps one of these days NASA will create a searchable archive of NASA TV briefings (well I can dream...) :--)

Posted by: hendric Jan 22 2007, 06:30 PM

This is perhaps the next best thing...

http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php

#include standard_gripe_about_living_in_austin_hours_from_houston_and_STILL_NO_NASA_TV_ON
CABLE.h

Posted by: dvandorn Jan 23 2007, 01:56 AM

Whereas we in Minneapolis get NASA-TV on our cable system, even though our cable system has been through two ownership changes in the past 10 years (local company Paragon bought by Time-Warner, which then sold out to Comcast in a shady "we'll give you this market if you give us another market" deal).

I'm told we get NASA-TV because one of the local high schools insists on having it available and actually uses its own satellite dish to pull it in. They then share the feed with the cable company. I was concerned that we would lose NASA-TV forever here when it went digital (requiring a somewhat pricey new decoder box to pull in), but it's still on 24/7 in Minneapolis proper.

Now, if we could just get the programmers in Houston to give us a little more variety in programming -- we seem to get an *awful* lot of the kiddie programming (including one called "An Astronaut's Life" or somesuch, which features Sunni Williams prominently with no explanation as to how she's on a stage at MSC and at the same time is the FE on the ISS... smile.gif ). We also get nothing all night (at least some of the time) but interviews with the crew of whichever Shuttle flight is next up, which is fine -- except it's *all* they run overnight, sometimes, for several months prior to a flight. It gets a little old after the 40th or 50th time you've seen it.

I'm an old guy, I admit (51 years young last birthday), but I would really like to see more of the films made of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights back in the 60's and 70's. Every once in a while we get one of them, but not often enough for me...

However, it *is* nice to get the press conferences, even if I have to wait for them to be re-run sometimes. I was very pleased to see and hear Alan Stern and John Spencer, both active posters to our little forum, being so delightfully enthusiastic about the Jupiter encounter. I wonder a bit, though, if Alan's statement about how we just can't get as much science out of NH as possible because we can't afford a Voyager-sized staff for it might have been aimed at members of the new Congress... smile.gif

-the other Doug

Posted by: edstrick Jan 23 2007, 12:01 PM

"#include standard_gripe_about_living_in_austin_hours_from_houston_and_STILL_NO_NASA_TV_ON
_CABLE.h"

Between that, and the totally <expletive deleted> analog cable service (we're not going to pay through the nose for digital cable AND renting several digital cable converter boxes)...

That's why we dumped Time Warner Cable and switched (by more or less a coin toss) to DirecTV. I'm not entirely happy with their image quality (It's entirely possible Dish Network is as bad) which I'm convinced is severely overcompressed on low viewership channels, but it's not full of bad-cable static that they could never fix, and it got is NASA TV just before the Mars Rovers arrived.

Posted by: edstrick Jan 23 2007, 12:04 PM

"...Perhaps one of these days NASA will create a searchable archive of NASA TV briefings..."

and PERHAPS NASA will <expletive deleted> the PIO slackers who post video after video on the all night NASA Gallery, including a Mariner-4 at Mars video I've been DYING to record since whenever... and utterly no schedule information, EVER.

rant
...........rave
.........................foam
.......................................gnaws at the edge of his monitor...

Posted by: tasp Jan 23 2007, 02:46 PM

Helpful NASA-TV tip:

I TIVO 5 hours of it every day and then scan it at high speed at my convenience. I don't bother trying to keep track of their schedule, and if anything good turns up (like the NH Jupiter press conference) I can watch it, and if I want, can burn a DVD of it too.

Directv doesn't make TIVO recievers anymore, but their DVR will do pretty much the same thing, and in any regard, TIVO stand alone units can be 'grafted' onto Directv, Dish, and most cable system boxes.

cool.gif

Posted by: john_s Jan 23 2007, 04:36 PM

Hi folks-

The "raw" Jupiter encounter LORRI images are now being posted as JPEGs at a public web site http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/. Actually, they are not quite raw- they have already been flat-fielded and desmeared (the originals have readout smear, as LORRI doesn't have a shutter). Most of the images should show up here eventually, though it's not an automatic pipeline like MER and Cassini, so please be patient.

Enjoy!
John.

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 23 2007, 06:19 PM

Hooray! biggrin.gif biggrin.gif biggrin.gif

Anyone want to take a crack at assembling those Jupiter rotation movies? I'm at the Phoenix landing site meeting and must listen to Mars stuff right now!

--Emily

Posted by: punkboi Jan 23 2007, 06:35 PM

Off-topic, but let us know how the Phoenix landing site meeting goes, Emily. As if that's something to forget writing about biggrin.gif

Posted by: djellison Jan 23 2007, 07:00 PM

Anim Gif of the Jan 15th sequence.


 

Posted by: djellison Jan 23 2007, 08:41 PM

50% size of the 8th-to-10th jan sequence.

Doug

 

Posted by: djellison Jan 23 2007, 09:11 PM

And the 14th jan sequence - at 100%

 

Posted by: NMRguy Jan 24 2007, 12:10 AM

The new PI Perspective is up.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php

Just 35 days until closest approach...

Posted by: Decepticon Jan 24 2007, 09:24 AM

It's interesting to see small detail on the Galilean Satellites even from this distance. Pluto science Looks very promising!

Posted by: AndyG Jan 24 2007, 09:27 AM

QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Jan 22 2007, 01:22 PM) *
...really, we'd need a new unit of energy, too - something comparable to area (the Wales) or mass (the US Naval Destroyer).

I quite agree. But it needs to be scaled to best suit the application. And so I humbly propose the:

Hot Bath

It's intuitive, commonplace, and gives you a real sense of potent energy. Here's a few comparisons to whet your appetite (and don't forget to do behind your ears)

200 hours of TV = 1 HB
1kg from launch to LEO = 3.3 HB
1kg from launch to GEO = 9.7 HB
Kinetic Energy (relative to the Sun) of New Horizons = 6.3 kHB
1 Transatlantic jet flight = 18 kHB
Apollo 17 = 400 kHB

etc...

Andy

Posted by: Rakhir Jan 24 2007, 10:24 AM

Just 3 HB to launch 1kg to LEO (or 10 to GTO) ? blink.gif

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jan 24 2007, 12:45 PM

I hope no teenagers (AKA 'The Great Unwashed') have been reading the Hot Bath observations; they can now point out that sitting slumped in front of the TV (unwashed) for a fortnight is as green as having only one bath. I forsee major domestic issues here...


Bob Shaw

Posted by: AndyG Jan 24 2007, 01:42 PM

Don't worry, Bob. It's also a quality of life indicator. My figures suggest that the US energy use for 1999 (the last year I could reliably get in a few minutes' googlin') equates to 1 HB per capita every twenty minutes.

And yes, Rakhir, that is the energy to orbit. Not much. Just "difficult".

Andy

Posted by: climber Jan 24 2007, 03:35 PM

QUOTE (AndyG @ Jan 24 2007, 02:42 PM) *
My figures suggest that the US energy use for 1999 equates to 1 HB per capita every twenty minutes.

You very clean people blink.gif

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 24 2007, 04:01 PM

QUOTE
The solar probe Helios 2 was the fastest travelling spacecraft ever, at about 69 km/s relative to the Sun. I do not think any outer solar system probes in near future could have a higher speed.
End quote.



Well, the NH webpages "advertised" the spacecraft as being the fastest ever launched... maybe they only count the time to reach the Moon huh.gif

The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons will make its closest pass to Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007. Jupiter's gravity will accelerate New Horizons away from the sun by an additional 9,000 miles per hour, pushing it past 52,000 mph and hurling it toward a pass through the Pluto system in July 2015.

Posted by: BPCooper Jan 24 2007, 04:41 PM

It is the craft to leave Earth with the highest relative velocity, but my understanding is that became moot not too long after launch. I was told by a couple of the project guys that NH will never catch Voyager (1 at least), however I'm not sure I see why as NH is currently travelling at the highest speed away from the sun of any spacecraft escaping the solar system.

Posted by: Alan Stern Jan 24 2007, 05:21 PM

QUOTE (BPCooper @ Jan 24 2007, 04:41 PM) *
It is the craft to leave Earth with the highest relative velocity, but my understanding is that became moot not too long after launch. I was told by a couple of the project guys that NH will never catch Voyager (1 at least), however I'm not sure I see why as NH is currently travelling at the highest speed away from the sun of any spacecraft escaping the solar system.


This may help--

NH is the fastest to Jupiter owing to its high C3 and orbit design. V1 and V2 each had multiple giant planet GA's; NH only has one (JGA). Result: V1 and V2, by virtue of their multiple GA boosts, out run NH.

-Alan

Posted by: JRehling Jan 24 2007, 05:31 PM

QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 23 2007, 01:11 PM) *
And the 14th jan sequence - at 100%


Great stuff, Doug. Jupiter is very cool-looking. I want one for my living room. But where would I put it?

The periodic storms around the northern belt (especially) are so numerous, and the animation just choppy enough, that I perceive a (false) reverse rotation, the way that helicopter blades seem to go in reverse on TV.

Posted by: djellison Jan 24 2007, 05:36 PM

Bit of an anim of I think four consecutive Jols ( Jovian Sols???)

Doug

 

Posted by: john_s Jan 24 2007, 05:40 PM

Lovely!

Posted by: volcanopele Jan 24 2007, 05:42 PM

The PI Perspective notes that we haven't seen "brown barges" like we saw during Voyager, but could we be seeing some in the southern hemisphere? Note the dark elongated feature south of the GRS here: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003113/lor_0031138439_0x630_sci_1.jpg

Posted by: djellison Jan 24 2007, 05:48 PM

You can see dark material swirling around the GRS from about 7 O'clock anti-clockwise to about 3 O'clock - very cool smile.gif

Doug

Posted by: dvandorn Jan 24 2007, 06:29 PM

QUOTE (AndyG @ Jan 24 2007, 07:42 AM) *
And yes, Rakhir, that is the energy to orbit. Not much. Just "difficult".

Yep -- while the energy costs to get "up the hill" are high, they're not much higher, relatively, than a lot of other things. For example, I've seen numbers that say a fully-fueled 747 has enough energy available, in its fuel tanks, to put the plane into orbit. It takes that much energy to fly a 747 halfway across the globe. But in flying at airliner speeds, the 747 releases the total energy much more slowly than needed to accelerate to orbital velocity.

If you could expend all of the energy in a 747's tanks in about six or seven minutes, you could, indeed, put it into orbit... (shades of Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers!)

-the other Doug

Posted by: PhilCo126 Jan 24 2007, 07:05 PM

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

ohmy.gif

Posted by: tty Jan 24 2007, 07:29 PM

QUOTE (dvandorn @ Jan 24 2007, 07:29 PM) *
If you could expend all of the energy in a 747's tanks in about six or seven minutes, you could, indeed, put it into orbit... (shades of Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers!)


Unfortunately there are other complications. A 747 doesn't have to take oxidant along and it's engines need only function in a narrow speed range (subsonic). If someone would please invent a multicycle engine that can morph from turbofan to ramjet to scramjet to rocket then SSTO (and back) wouldn't be too difficult.

tty

Posted by: BPCooper Jan 24 2007, 08:57 PM

QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Jan 24 2007, 12:21 PM) *
This may help--

NH is the fastest to Jupiter owing to its high C3 and orbit design. V1 and V2 each had multiple giant planet GA's; NH only has one (JGA). Result: V1 and V2, by virtue of their multiple GA boosts, out run NH.

-Alan


Thanks. NH is currently travelling faster than V1/V2 relative to the sun. I assume there will be some slowing on its outbound journey from Jupiter's graivty. Does that mean it will wind up slower than them once again by March-April or so?

Posted by: helvick Jan 24 2007, 09:30 PM

QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 24 2007, 05:36 PM) *
Jols ( Jovian Sols???)

Jovials? smile.gif

Posted by: Alan Stern Jan 24 2007, 09:46 PM

Yes, we'll slow after Jupiter. See the Press Kit on the JHUAPL web site front page for the numbers.
As to V1 and V2 comparisons to NH, you'll have to scare those numbers up for yourself, I think.

-Alan

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 24 2007, 10:35 PM

I just asked Mark Showalter at the PDS Rings Node if they were going to incorporate New Horizons into their Jupiter viewer. Turns out they already have a separate http://pds-rings.seti.org/tools/viewer2_jupnh.html and http://pds-rings.seti.org/tools/ephem2_jupnh.html, which I hadn't noticed before. The Viewer is very handy to get a prediction of how the planet, satellites, and rings will look to the ORS instruments at different times during the encounter. To get the field of view you want using the viewer:

LORRI's FOV is square at 1044 arcsec
The slit of the Alice spectrometer is 14438 arcsec long (it's only 350 arcsec wide)
MVIC panoramas are 20626 arcsec wide and whatever number they want long
LEISA's FOV is square at 3280 arcsec.

...I think. I calculated these based on the FOV numbers given at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/spacecraft/instruments.html.

Have fun.

--Emily

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Jan 24 2007, 10:43 PM

QUOTE (tty @ Jan 24 2007, 11:29 AM) *
If someone would please invent a multicycle engine that can morph from turbofan to ramjet to scramjet to rocket then SSTO (and back)

Well I'm real busy with the concrete walk and back patio these days, but I promise I'll have a look as soon as I'm done (probably May if we don't have too much rain this winter) ....unless of course Doug finishes the UMSF shed first, then maybe he'll have time.

Posted by: john_s Jan 25 2007, 12:19 AM

Here's a simplified and slightly updated version of the Jupiter observation timeline...
 jupiter_timeline_static.xls ( 114.5K ) : 845


John.

Posted by: djellison Jan 25 2007, 10:21 AM

And new images added to the SOC gallery up to the 21st.

Doug

Posted by: peter59 Jan 25 2007, 04:50 PM

Two satellites and two shadows !
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003130/lor_0031303982_0x630_sci_1.jpg

Posted by: volcanopele Jan 25 2007, 05:30 PM

Here is a rotation movie for January 21:

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/New_Horizons/Jan21_movie.gif

The moon that crosses that transits during the first half of the movie (and casts a shadow on Jupiter) is Europa, while Io makes a brief, one frame appearance.

Posted by: J.J. Jan 25 2007, 11:41 PM

Based on the approximate orbital velocity of Pluto at encounter, and the total relative velocity of NH and Pluto at encounter, I (awhile back) derived a velocity of ~12.7 km/s for NH at Pluto. Assuming that's correct, that puts NH well above the velocities of P10 and P11 (at 12.1 and 11.5 km/s, respectively), but far below either of the Voyagers (at 15.6 km/s for V2 and 17.1 km/s for V1).

For those a little more bored than I, one can calculate the "loss distance" of NH from P10 and P11, based on the difference in velocities. Lessee...NH will be moving at about 2.7 AU/yr. once she passes Pluto. That means she'll be gaining 1.2 AU/yr. relative to P11, and 0.6 AU/yr. relative to P10. That isn't as much as it sounds; if my numbers are right, NH won't catch up with P11 until ~2066 (at 138 AU), and not to P10 until ~2151 (at 367 AU).

For the record, in 2066, the Voyagers will be at:

V2: 250 AU
V1: 286 AU

In 2151:

V2: 531 AU
V1: 592 AU

Feel free to check my figures, all.

Posted by: ugordan Jan 26 2007, 09:40 AM

Why do these NH images look somewhat blurrier than Cassini's comparable NAC frames? Does LORRI have a greater PSF? I'm judging by the sharpness of the moons' discs to be clear.

Posted by: djellison Jan 26 2007, 10:24 AM

Got some side by side comparisons?

Doug

Posted by: ugordan Jan 26 2007, 10:39 AM

Not at the moment, I'm at work, but I'll try to dig up some Cassini PDS ones for comparison later. It might be subjective, but I do get the feeling LORRI has a slightly wider PSF.

Posted by: djellison Jan 26 2007, 11:02 AM

It may be true of course, and I think LORRI is a narrower FOV than either of the CICLOPS pair - but of course comparing JPGs with PDS IMG's isn't a true comparison.

Hopefully John or Alan will comment.

Doug

Posted by: john_s Jan 26 2007, 05:18 PM

It's true, LORRI is a much smaller and simpler camera than the Cassini NAC, and the PSF isn't quite so sharp. The high-frequency information is there, however, and the images can be sharpened nicely (though with increased noise).

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 26 2007, 05:36 PM

I read in "http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/papers/SCMsnDe/morgan_cal_5906B_50.pdf" by Morgan et al. that LORRI has "a PSF FWHM of 1.5 pixels with little variation across the FOV..."

PSF = Point Spread Function; FMHM = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_width_at_half_maximum.

And from the http://pdsimg.jpl.nasa.gov/data/cassini/cassini_orbiter/coiss_1001/catalog/issna_inst.cat: "The NAC point spread function (PSF) was designed to be approximately the same physical size as a pixel in the near-IR. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the PSFs of the NAC through the clear filters is 1.3 pixels."

Why would the FWHM be wider through the clear filters than the IR? huh.gif

To compare the masses, the http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments-cassini-iss.cfm. Anyone have a guess as to what fraction of that the NAC makes up? LORRI is only http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons!

--Emily

Posted by: ugordan Jan 26 2007, 06:45 PM

Here's the comparison between LORRI and ISS NA I promised. It shows Ganymede from lor_0031303982_0x630_sci_1.jpg. I used a Cassini frame (N1351684677_2.IMG) of approximately the same pixel scale, meaning taken from a distance of 56.7 mil. km as opposed to 68 mil. km due to LORRI's smaller FOV (0.29 vs 0.35 deg). Unfortunately there was no clear-filtered image at around this time so I used a GRN filter for Cassini. This might give a slightly sharper image than the entire passband would. The JPG artifacting is IMHO negligible in the NH image. The middle set was "sensibly" sharpened to bring out most details without producing strong edge ringing. Magnified 4x. The two views probably show opposing hemispheres so no similar features are visible.



Comparing ISS NAC with its 30.5 kilogram mass and peak power of 26 W to LORRI really shows the latter's sure one capable camera, even if having a slightly fuzzier image! Not to mention sensitivity, 3 ms exposures are more typical of what Cassini's WAC used at Jupiter, NAC used several tens of ms.

EDIT: Added simulated views using Solar System Simulator to show rough albedo features.

Posted by: Planet X Jan 26 2007, 09:05 PM

QUOTE (J.J. @ Jan 25 2007, 05:41 PM) *
Based on the approximate orbital velocity of Pluto at encounter, and the total relative velocity of NH and Pluto at encounter, I (awhile back) derived a velocity of ~12.7 km/s for NH at Pluto. Assuming that's correct, that puts NH well above the velocities of P10 and P11 (at 12.1 and 11.5 km/s, respectively), but far below either of the Voyagers (at 15.6 km/s for V2 and 17.1 km/s for V1).

For those a little more bored than I, one can calculate the "loss distance" of NH from P10 and P11, based on the difference in velocities. Lessee...NH will be moving at about 2.7 AU/yr. once she passes Pluto. That means she'll be gaining 1.2 AU/yr. relative to P11, and 0.6 AU/yr. relative to P10. That isn't as much as it sounds; if my numbers are right, NH won't catch up with P11 until ~2066 (at 138 AU), and not to P10 until ~2151 (at 367 AU).

For the record, in 2066, the Voyagers will be at:

V2: 250 AU
V1: 286 AU

In 2151:

V2: 531 AU
V1: 592 AU

Feel free to check my figures, all.


Those figures are a bit off I'd say. I think you've mistakenly thought that 0.1 km/s is equivilant to 0.1 AU/yr. A speed of 0.1 km/s actually equals 360 km/hr, or 3153600 km (~0.02 AU) per year. A speed of 1.0 km/s, therefore, equals ~0.2 AU/yr.

That said, NH will actually be moving at ~14 km/s relative to the sun at the time of Pluto encounter. However, I read awhile back that NH will reach 100 AU in December 2038 after traveling at an average speed of ~13 km/s during a cruise of over 23 years from Pluto to 100 AU. This means that NH's speed will have slowed down from ~14km/s at the Pluto encounter to ~12 km/s at the 100 AU crossing. Interestingly enough, the speed of Pioneer 10 at 100 AU is also ~12km/s!

If this is indeed correct, then NH may not even catch Pioneer 10! It will still easily whup Pioneer 11, though, as that spacecraft will have slowed down to ~2.3 AU/yr when it reaches 100 AU in late January 2019. Later!

J P

Posted by: helvick Jan 27 2007, 01:49 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 26 2007, 05:36 PM) *
Why would the FWHM be wider through the clear filters than the IR? huh.gif

Chromatic aberration would seem logical to me.

Posted by: ugordan Jan 27 2007, 04:59 PM

Cassini NAC is a reflector telescope and I don't see any obvious refracting elements in its design (such as field flattening optics) so where would chromatic aberration come from? Maybe the design simply optimizes for focus using the IR filters (they do, after all affect focus ever-so-slightly) so using no filter (clear frame) produces a slight defocus. Diffraction/wavelength effects would make longer wavelengths more blurred, contrary to this behaviour, right?
I know the WAC uses a special "clear" filter that improves focus over the visible wavelengths since it's basically an old Voyager WAC optics design.

EDIT: Correction, there appear to be field corrector optics and the window of the CCD package in the NAC. Chromatic aberration might be the sole reason for the PSF variation.

-----

Back on topic... A question for John or Alan: What are the maximum exposures for LORRI without saturating various targets at Jupiter, at these approach phase angles? I see a typical exposure is 3 ms. The difference between 4 ms and 2 ms seems to be quite a bit less noise in the former case. Is the only reason such low exposures are used to avoid overexposure (say at Europa / Io)?

Posted by: yaohua2000 Jan 29 2007, 05:38 AM

New Horizons was 50 million kilometers away from Jupiter at 2007-01-28 13:09:38 UTC.

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Jan 29 2007, 07:49 PM

Planetary Radio
NEW HORIZONS APPROACHES JUPITER!
Airdate: Monday, January 29, 2007
http://planetary.org/radio/show/00000221/

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Jan 29 2007, 08:17 PM

For comparison purposes I did a a montage of global images from all of the spacecraft that have flown by Jupiter and imaged it (Galileo is omitted because there is no low phase global coverage):




The northern hemisphere is very similar in the NH and Voyager images. There are differences but some of these may be due to LORRI's greater wavelength coverage.

The southern hemisphere is somewhat similar to its appearance in the Cassini images with the biggest visible difference being that the region around the Great Red Spot appears far less turbulent. The GRS itself is noticeable smaller in longitudinal extent than it was during the Voyager flybys.

EDIT: The Cassini and Voyager images are calibrated green filtered images without any further processing. No clear-filter images were available. The Pioneer images are scanned color images I converted to grayscale and contrast enhanced slightly.

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 29 2007, 08:45 PM

Cool montage, Bjorn!

Are these all clear-filter images? Are there differences in these images attributable to what bandpasses the cameras were sensitive to?

--Emily

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Jan 29 2007, 10:18 PM

I forgot to specify the filters - they have been added into my original message.

The different filters account for some of the differences but the effect is probably minor. I have found that clear-filter images are more similar to green-filter images than to red and blue images. This is especially true of red features like the GRS.

Posted by: Toma B Jan 30 2007, 07:22 AM

There has been an update on the "New Horizons Science Operations Center" OR NOT?!?! blink.gif
I really don't know...now...
This morning I opened that page and I saw some new images (more than 10) taken on 24th January ,saved it than clicked "BACK" and there was no new images anymore including the one that I just saved...
I tried everything that I know to get that new images page back but it's just gone!!!

Maybe I'm imagining things or dreamed it but there are now 56 images of Jupiter on "New Horizons SOC"
and I have 57 on my HDD...!?!

Here is that extra image I'm talking about:



Have you seen this image yet?

Posted by: Ian R Jan 30 2007, 09:34 AM

Is this a rogue pixel, or one of the smaller, inner moons? unsure.gif



Ian.

Posted by: ugordan Jan 30 2007, 09:45 AM

Noise. NH is still too far out to resolve anything except the Galileans. If that were a real feature, it would be slightly smudged over more than 1 pixel due to the point spread function.

Posted by: djellison Jan 30 2007, 09:54 AM

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?tbody=599&vbody=-98&month=1&day=21&year=2007&hour=17&minute=45&fovmul=1&rfov=0.5&bfov=30&porbs=1&showsc=1

The view at the time of the picture ( roughly )

Doug

Posted by: Alan Stern Jan 30 2007, 12:47 PM

Toma B-- More images will be posted as they are received. The SOC description page is under development and is planned for permanent posting this week.

-Alan

Posted by: JRehling Jan 30 2007, 06:51 PM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Jan 29 2007, 02:18 PM) *
I forgot to specify the filters - they have been added into my original message.

The different filters account for some of the differences but the effect is probably minor. I have found that clear-filter images are more similar to green-filter images than to red and blue images. This is especially true of red features like the GRS.


In principle, this would depend upon the sensitivity of the photosensitive substrate, which can vary for two cameras with the same (clear or otherwise) filter.

I wonder if the Pioneer cameras were intrinsically more sensitive to blues, making the GRS stand out as a much darker feature than in Voyager, etc. images. Alternately, the GRS may have changes in the intervening few years. Given the fact that all features appear to be a bit different in Pioneer vs. Voyager images, I suspect that this is a case of what's behind the clear filters not being the same.

Posted by: tedstryk Jan 30 2007, 07:46 PM

QUOTE (JRehling @ Jan 30 2007, 06:51 PM) *
In principle, this would depend upon the sensitivity of the photosensitive substrate, which can vary for two cameras with the same (clear or otherwise) filter.

I wonder if the Pioneer cameras were intrinsically more sensitive to blues, making the GRS stand out as a much darker feature than in Voyager, etc. images. Alternately, the GRS may have changes in the intervening few years. Given the fact that all features appear to be a bit different in Pioneer vs. Voyager images, I suspect that this is a case of what's behind the clear filters not being the same.


The red spot is known from groundbased observations to have become much fainter between Voyager and Pioneer. The fact that Pioneer had no real green image and had a true red channel (not orange) may also have a lot to do with it.

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Jan 30 2007, 07:47 PM

The GRS is known to exhibit a stronger red color when the South Equatorial Belt is whitish (Pioneer images) than when it is brownish (Voyager images) so this is probably the main reason for its different appearance in the Pioneer and Voyager images.

Posted by: volcanopele Jan 30 2007, 09:12 PM

Here is an animated gif covering the time period from 2007-01-21 19:42:01 UTC to 2007-01-22 05:42:01 UTC. The moon moving from right to left at the beginning of the animation is Callisto. Io makes a cameo appearance at the end of the movie.

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/New_Horizons/Jan21-22_movie.gif

Posted by: volcanopele Jan 30 2007, 09:47 PM

Attached are two views of Io taken last week by New Horizons. For each image, I have magnified the image by 1000%, using bicubic (top view) and Nearest-Neighbor (bottom view) interpolation. For each image, I included a simulated view from the http://space.jpl.nasa.gov. Large scale features such Bosphorus Regio and Colchis Regio are starting to come into view, along with the non-sense surrounding Isum Patera.


 

Posted by: Sunspot Jan 30 2007, 11:49 PM

We need an Io orbiter... if it were technically possible that is.

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 31 2007, 01:07 AM

I don't think you'll see volcanopele arguing with that suggestion. rolleyes.gif

--Emily

Posted by: Decepticon Jan 31 2007, 08:44 AM

Oh Ya? We need a Europa orbiter! smile.gif

Posted by: NMRguy Jan 31 2007, 03:19 PM

Cameras on spacecraft often have to trade off between spatial and spectral resolution, and LORRI and Ralph are no exception. The incoming photos have all been from LORRI with its superior long range capabilities. But as we approach Jupiter, can we expect any “combination image products” from New Horizons in the same vein as HiRISE/CRISM on MRO or ISS/VIMS from Cassini, or are the focusing conditions and fields of view too disparate?

http://crism.jhuapl.edu/gallery/featuredImage/current/featuredImage20061213_2.php
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=1111

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 31 2007, 05:12 PM

It seems it should be possible to combine LORRI detail images with MVIC color. MVIC's field of view is 20 times broader than LORRI's, but its CCD is almost 5 times broader, so in fact MVIC's resolution is only four times coarser than LORRI's, which is not bad.

To get a handle on when targets are going to be observed by both MVIC and LORRI, you can check out the http://planetary.org/explore/topics/new_horizons/jupiter_timeline.html I'm working on. It's based on John's spreadsheet. It's not done yet -- I need to add much more in the way of explanation, and I'm going to put in some illustrations of NH's position at the start of each day (thanks for the suggestion Doug) -- but I figure you guys won't mind seeing the work in progress. smile.gif

--Emily

Posted by: ustrax Jan 31 2007, 05:21 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 31 2007, 05:12 PM) *
but I figure you guys won't mind seeing the work in progress. smile.gif


In what concerns me I don't mind AT ALL! smile.gif

Great work Emily!

Posted by: volcanopele Jan 31 2007, 05:33 PM

Cool, I wonder if it is even worth it to try to see if I can find Callirrhoe in the Jan. 10 images....

Posted by: Stu Jan 31 2007, 08:30 PM

CLOSING IN

Far behind now: blue-white world,
Waterworld, world of feathered clouds and
Oceans deep, steep, snow-capped mountains
And deserts of powdered amber.
Ahead, above, beneath, all around: blackness,
Ebony abyss studded with sequin stars
Bisected by mottled vapour trail – the
Sun-frothed spine of the Milky Way.

A year of nothing. Waiting. Watching
The dark get darker as Earth’s glow
Slowly fades o’er my shoulder.

And then…

Ahead: a glint of gold.
A yellow grain among the dust.

It grows.

A yellow peppercorn now, how bright
It seems against the void.

It grows

A butterscotch-hued bead now,
Sewn onto the star-embroidered cloak
Of night…

What a sight suddenly! A marble
Now, dipped in caramel
With toffee whirls and honey swirls
Streaked across its face.

I rush on silently, imagining
Stars streaking past in Enterprise style,
Hearing the solar wind howling in my ears
As I close in on –

A tiger-striped ball now, fat with cloud,
Bloated and branded with auburn bands
And strands of coffee-coloured haze
Dotted with cinnamon spots –

And still it grows…


© Stuart Atkinson 2007

Posted by: Phil Stooke Jan 31 2007, 08:39 PM

Emily's blog-in-progress:

"Blah Blah..."

Hmm, now I know what my students feel like...

This is really useful - what a great encounter! And in case people don't know about this, here is one of the goals of the Europa terminator mapping - extending the map of these 'crop circles':

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2005/pdf/2081.pdf

Phil

Posted by: djellison Jan 31 2007, 09:07 PM

Blah Blah is so much better than the random Latin text that egomaniac typesetters and marketing experts use smile.gif

Doug

Posted by: elakdawalla Jan 31 2007, 09:14 PM

Lorem ipsum isn't actually truly sensible Latin, though it's based on Latin. If I'd felt like taking the time I could even have used the online http://www.lipsum.com/. smile.gif

Hope to have a major update done on this in a couple of hours...

--Emily

Posted by: NMRguy Jan 31 2007, 10:44 PM

Thanks again, Emily. It's really nice and very easy to follow, and it gives you a clear idea of what cameras/spectrometers will be used in tandem. Keep up the great work!

Posted by: lyford Jan 31 2007, 11:39 PM

Thanks for the preview Emily, but I couldn't help but be reminded of this Far Side cartoon: biggrin.gif biggrin.gif biggrin.gif


Posted by: elakdawalla Feb 1 2007, 12:14 AM

At that, the dog understands a lot more than my daughter does wink.gif

The "blah blah" is gone; I've uploaded my update, with some illustration and some more explanatory text. Check it out! It'll probably get tweaked one last time before I blog it. Please feel free to send me an email with any comments or suggestions.

--Emily

Posted by: djellison Feb 1 2007, 12:35 AM

I think the pics from Dave's simulator are a master stroke. Whoever thought of adding those is a genius.

In all seriousness - it takes Johns XLS, and makes it suitable for public consumption - great work.

I don't know how good the New Horizons trajectory is for Celestia, but if it's any good - I'll do a movie of it.

Doug

Posted by: ugordan Feb 1 2007, 12:16 PM

There are a few more images posted on the SOC page, up to Jan 24 and a range of 57 million km. Albedo features are slowly becoming resolvable on the moons. I wonder why the north on Jupiter is not up (or left) in these images, but somewhat tilted, does the S/C use the celestial north pole instead? A couple of frames targeting a specific moon do seem to have Jovian north aligned to a spacecraft axis on the other hand.

EDIT: Curious, the images have disappeared again. Oh well, they'll be back.

Posted by: djellison Feb 1 2007, 01:24 PM

Probably just the attitude of the spacecraft when imaging - it doesn't really matter smile.gif Perhaps there is some sort of alignment involved for the other instruments to sweep across the disk?

Doug

Posted by: ustrax Feb 1 2007, 02:35 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 1 2007, 12:16 PM) *
There are a few more images posted on the SOC page, up to Jan 24 and a range of 57 million km. Albedo features are slowly becoming resolvable on the moons.


Is it possible that we are starting to see details to a point where we can already http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/iovulc.jpg
Hey...What do I know? This may be even not Io at all... rolleyes.gif
But it looks like it and if it is...is it possible that some new volcanoes have appeared since the last visit?... ph34r.gif

If I'm wrong and this is Callisto or some other Moon please give me some discount, I've been inside an abyss for too long... tongue.gif

Posted by: john_s Feb 1 2007, 02:36 PM

QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Jan 31 2007, 05:12 PM) *
It seems it should be possible to combine LORRI detail images with MVIC color. MVIC's field of view is 20 times broader than LORRI's, but its CCD is almost 5 times broader, so in fact MVIC's resolution is only four times coarser than LORRI's, which is not bad.


We'll be doing some MVIC/LORRI combinations, but not many at Jupiter, because we can't actually use MVIC much at Jupiter- it's too sensitive to be useable on the day side of Jupiter or its moons, so the images will saturate. It's also fairly data-intensive due to the large field of view- we don't yet have the capability to store only the rows containing the target. But we will get a couple of images of the Jupiter terminator, several scans of Io's night side, and we'll include an MVIC scan in the Io/Europa conjunction Kodak moment- maybe we'll catch some blue plumes off the limb and make a nice LORRI/MVIC combo image there.

John.

Posted by: ustrax Feb 1 2007, 04:32 PM

QUOTE (ustrax @ Feb 1 2007, 02:35 PM) *
Hey...What do I know? This may be even not Io at all... rolleyes.gif


But sure looks like it... blink.gif
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/iovulc2.jpg

Posted by: Alan Stern Feb 1 2007, 06:11 PM

That's cool. Seems convincing on first look. Spencer-- You're Dr. Io. What do you think?

-Alan

Posted by: john_s Feb 1 2007, 06:17 PM

I've a feeling these are artifacts resulting from the sharpening process, unfortunately. Ustrax's images did prompt me to go back to our orignal data and look at the Io images more closely, but so far I haven't been able to confirm those features. Not quite done though- I'll look a bit further.

John

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 1 2007, 06:22 PM

Is that even Io? Check out my post on Io earlier: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3743&view=findpost&p=82165

If ustrax has the right hemisphere according to his reference image, the most prominent feature in the image should Bosphorus Regio, which should appear bright near the center of the disk. Media Regio oddly appears brighter than Bosphorus, which doesn't make any sense.

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Feb 1 2007, 07:37 PM

QUOTE (Alan Stern @ Feb 1 2007, 10:11 AM) *
Spencer-- You're Dr. Io.

On his way into work does he sing, "Io, Io, it's off to work we go!"

Sorry I had to say it before Bob Shaw did.

Posted by: Phil Stooke Feb 1 2007, 08:21 PM

No, it's "Io my soul to the company store"

(Sixteen Tons...)

Phil

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Feb 1 2007, 09:17 PM

That's a more catchy description than the one where the 1970's era newscaster pronounced Io as "ten."

Posted by: JRehling Feb 1 2007, 10:47 PM

QUOTE (AlexBlackwell @ Feb 1 2007, 01:17 PM) *
That's a more catchy description than the one where the 1970's era newscaster pronounced Io as "ten."


While we're off topic, I'll add that a high school history teacher told me that one of his students referred to Malcolm X as "Malcolm the Tenth".

Posted by: ustrax Feb 2 2007, 09:10 AM

QUOTE (volcanopele @ Feb 1 2007, 06:22 PM) *
Is that even Io?


Don't ask me... rolleyes.gif

This is the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003191/lor_0031919579_0x630_sci_1.jpg I've used.

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 2 2007, 09:17 AM

QUOTE (ustrax @ Feb 2 2007, 02:10 AM) *
Don't ask me... rolleyes.gif

This is the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003191/lor_0031919579_0x630_sci_1.jpg I've used:

AHHH, now I understand. The moon on the left (which is the one I think you were looking at) is Ganymede. The moon on the right, still to the upper left of Jupiter is Io.

At this point, LORRI just doesn't have the resolution to pick out individual volcanic centers. NH can see large scale albedo features, like Bosphorus and Colchis Regiones, and the dark material surrounding Isum Patera, but at such low resolution, you can't really see small scale features.

I should try to calculate the resolution for the Io image.

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 2 2007, 09:20 AM

For comparison, rotate Ustrax's sharpened image 90 degrees clockwise (or there abouts) and compare to this simulated view from the Solar system simulator:

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?tbody=503&vbody=-98&month=1&day=24&year=2007&hour=04&minute=40&rfov=1&fovmul=-1&bfov=30&porbs=1&showsc=1

The bright spot at upper right in Ustrax's sharpened view is caused by the bright rays radiating from the crater Osiris.

Posted by: ustrax Feb 2 2007, 09:32 AM

QUOTE (volcanopele @ Feb 2 2007, 09:20 AM) *
The bright spot at upper right in Ustrax's sharpened view is caused by the bright rays radiating from the crater Osiris.


Is http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/gannh.jpg more like it volcanopele? rolleyes.gif

Now let me see what can we get from REAL Io... tongue.gif

EDITED:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/iovulc3.jpg what I got from Io, probably just an artifacts from sharpening.
volcanopele, could you get us an Io image centered in the marked feature(and, BTW, what's the name of it?)?

Posted by: ugordan Feb 2 2007, 03:01 PM

Are you sharpening the image before or after the enlargement? It seems like artifacts from too much sharpening applied afterwards?

Posted by: ustrax Feb 2 2007, 03:24 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 2 2007, 03:01 PM) *
Are you sharpening the image before or after the enlargement? It seems like artifacts from too much sharpening applied afterwards?


First I crop the area in which I'm interested, then convert it into a new bitmap, which softens it a lot, and from then, I sharpen it and reduce moiré as many times as needed.

Posted by: ugordan Feb 2 2007, 03:41 PM

What do you mean by it softens it alot? By moiré what exactly do you mean? Edge ringing? I wouldn't really sharpen the images beyond the point of trying to reverse the point spread function, which is 1.5 pixels FWHM. I tend to use Photoshop's smart sharpen filter with radius 0.7-0.8 pix and it gives good results. Any more processing could "introduce" details, not bring them out.

Posted by: ustrax Feb 2 2007, 03:49 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 2 2007, 03:41 PM) *
What do you mean by it softens it alot? By moiré what exactly do you mean? Edge ringing? I wouldn't really sharpen the images beyond the point of trying to reverse the point spread function, which is AFAIK 1.5 pixels. I tend to use Photoshop's smart sharpen filter with radius 0.7-0.8 pix and it gives good results. Any more processing could "introduce" details, not bring them out.


Man! If you, who are able to speak about radius and point spread functions are asking me what moiré is then how the hell should I know?! blink.gif
tongue.gif

It's just a function in my good old CorelDraw... rolleyes.gif
Maybe I should start calling it "the-tool-that-creates-detais-which-resemble-a-lot-with-surface-features-in Jupiter's-Moons"

Posted by: ugordan Feb 2 2007, 03:53 PM

Hehe smile.gif
The obvious problem I see are those vertical/horizontal bars that appear and those are clear signs you did the sharpening after the resize. By softening up I guess you mean Corel Draw (why even use it for a purpose like this!) magnifies the crop and then you end up enhancing resize algorithm artifacts.
And no, I have no idea what Corel's moiré removal does! biggrin.gif

Posted by: ustrax Feb 2 2007, 04:11 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 2 2007, 03:53 PM) *
Hehe smile.gif
The obvious problem I see are those vertical/horizontal bars that appear and those are clear signs you did the sharpening after the resize. By softening up I guess you mean Corel Draw (why even use it for a purpose like this!) magnifies the crop and then you end up enhancing resize algorithm artifacts.
And no, I have no idea what Corel's moiré removal does! biggrin.gif


laugh.gif enhancing resize algorithm artifacts laugh.gif
Man...That's worst than greek to me..that's...Ionian...
So...There's is no chance of that marked Io feature be what I thought?

Now...seriously...the moiré removal tool as similar effects to the noise removal one.

Don't you dare to doubt by good old buddy software! mad.gif
He helped me finding even unexisting features such as abysses... rolleyes.gif
Imagine what Lowell could have done with CorelDraw... smile.gif

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 2 2007, 05:26 PM

Ustrax, what ugordan is trying to say is that many of the features you see in your sharpened view were introduced by the sharpening process. In other words, they are not real. There are simply not enough pixels to be seeing features on the scales you are seeing in your image. Sure, I would like to, but we just have to be a little more patient.

Posted by: ugordan Feb 2 2007, 05:27 PM

Here's my take on the latest Io image. It flips between the LORRI image and Sol. Sys. Simulator image. Magnified 4x:

Posted by: Ant103 Feb 2 2007, 05:35 PM

It's just a try to make an anaglyph with NH images wink.gif
(the relief is not so pronounced...).


Posted by: ustrax Feb 2 2007, 05:36 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 2 2007, 05:27 PM) *
Here's my take on the latest Io image.


That's is very nice!
Always a pleasure to learn from someone who REALLY knows what is doing. smile.gif

EDITED: Could you do the same with Ganymede?

Posted by: ugordan Feb 2 2007, 05:38 PM

Well, Ant103, you can't expect two consecutive images taken 3 seconds (!) apart to show any change. Not at this range.

Three seconds... geez, Cassini's cameras really are slow!

EDIT: Due to popular demand, here's the Ganymede flicker (flipper ?):

Posted by: MahFL Feb 2 2007, 06:39 PM

Some new approach charts have been added to this page.

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

pancam.gif

Posted by: infocat13 Feb 3 2007, 01:14 AM

QUOTE (MahFL @ Feb 2 2007, 01:39 PM) *
Some new approach charts have been added to this page.

http://www.yaohua2000.org/cgi-bin/New%20Horizons.pl

pancam.gif



totaly cool MAHFL.....................if only we could show the astrodynamics "b " plane at Jupiter for this mission IE the Jupiter aimpoint and its surroundings and where the star motor went threw.

Posted by: Thu Feb 3 2007, 01:09 PM

Quite an update with easy to understand charts.

40 million km and one Earth-Moon distance to Jupiter rolleyes.gif

Posted by: yaohua2000 Feb 3 2007, 01:20 PM

New Horizons will be soon exactly 40,000,000 kilometers away from Jupiter at 2007-02-03 18:30:45 UTC.

http://magicnumber.sourceforge.net/

Posted by: alan Feb 3 2007, 08:49 PM

One of Jupiters irregular satellites, 2003 J3 is 40047567 km for Jupiter at its most distant (apojove?). New Horizons is now closer than this.

Posted by: ugordan Feb 3 2007, 09:01 PM

Alan, your post brings up perhaps the only physically "meaningful" milestone right now -- entering Jupiter's sphere of influence. Since it has a radius of 48 million km, we're already well into Jupiter's domain.
Let the gravitational roller coaster ride begin!

Posted by: nprev Feb 6 2007, 02:58 AM

Alan has a weblog on the US Astronomy magazine website http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5108, and discusses entering Jupiter's sphere of influence.

Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 7 2007, 01:59 PM

Thanks for pointing out that blog...
Interesting upcoming event this weekend as next Saturday (February 10), LORRI will take its best full-disk portrait of Jupiter, just before the giant planet fills the camera's field of view.
ohmy.gif

Posted by: Greg Hullender Feb 9 2007, 09:16 PM

I see we have another update:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/020907.htm

Title and first paragraph are:

SWAP Observes Solar Wind Interactions at Jupiter

A little over a year since launch, with its sights firmly on Jupiter, the New Horizons spacecraft is testing its science payload and making observations as it rounds the planet for a gravity-assist that will speed its journey to the edge of the solar system. As the spacecraft approaches the planet, the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument is already generating data that will help resolve puzzling questions about the interactions between the solar wind, the million-mile-per-hour stream of ionized gas flowing out from the Sun, and Jupiter's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds the planet and encloses ionized gas.

.
.
.

[I just love the timely, frequent, and informative updates!]

--Greg

Posted by: yaohua2000 Feb 10 2007, 07:24 PM

2007-02-09 23:46:31

New Horizons is now no more than 30,000,000 kilometers away from Jupiter.

Posted by: stevesliva Feb 13 2007, 06:58 PM

There is another John S update from yesterday here:
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5108

Sounds like the calm before the storm.

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Feb 13 2007, 09:49 PM

Here is a quick and dirty attempt at showing what Jupiter might look like if NH could image it in color:


This is a colorized version of a January 22 image. The color is loosely based on the color of recent ground based images (in particular those of Christopher Go). The overall color is probably too reddish, too strong near the terminator and it's a bit uneven. Still this gives a crude idea of what Jupiter might look like to a spacecraft with a color camera.

Posted by: JRehling Feb 14 2007, 12:01 AM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Feb 13 2007, 01:49 PM) *
Here is a quick and dirty attempt at showing what Jupiter might look like if NH could image it in color:
[...]
This is a colorized version of a January 22 image. The color is loosely based on the color of recent ground based images (in particular those of Christopher Go). The overall color is probably too reddish, too strong near the terminator and it's a bit uneven. Still this gives a crude idea of what Jupiter might look like to a spacecraft with a color camera.


Disclaimers and all, it's still one of the better pictures I've ever seen of the Big J.

Off topic: Get warmed up for the Messenger true color imagery of Venus and Mercury -- we have two planets almost hitherto untouched by remote color imagery, both of them getting close-ups in the next 11 months. Last stops before Pluto.

Posted by: djellison Feb 14 2007, 01:05 AM

I imagine the last 'full disc' LORRI frame will be out soon.

Doug

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 14 2007, 04:16 AM

Jupiter from Feb. 10:



EDIT: Updated mosaic

Posted by: djellison Feb 14 2007, 08:35 AM

There is something quite funny about the last observation while LORRI can fit Jupiter into a single frame being taken as a mosaic of four frames smile.gif

Had a hack at it myself...and resized the finished thing to 1024 x 1024 for good luck smile.gif

 

Posted by: ugordan Feb 14 2007, 09:00 AM

QUOTE (djellison @ Feb 14 2007, 09:35 AM) *
There is something quite funny about the last observation while LORRI can fit Jupiter into a single frame being taken as a mosaic of four frames

Cassini also did that. I suppose there must be a good reason for increasing data volume by 3 times but one escapes me right now.

BTW, is that Red Junior on the eastern limb?

Posted by: climber Feb 14 2007, 09:38 AM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 14 2007, 10:00 AM) *
Cassini also did that. I suppose there must be a good reason for increasing data volume by 3 times but one escapes me right now.

Looking for sattelites? rings?

Posted by: ustrax Feb 14 2007, 10:28 AM

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/jupiterNH.jpg

EDITED:
Original images:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003342/lor_0033420927_0x630_sci_1.jpg
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003342/lor_0033420922_0x630_sci_1.jpg

Posted by: djellison Feb 14 2007, 10:45 AM

Emily made a good point in her blog - perhaps it was a case of not wanting to blind lorri by having the whole disc filling the sensor at one time - or simply that the be sure they got the whole disk they simply 'framed' the target with four frames.

Doug

Posted by: ugordan Feb 14 2007, 11:10 AM

I don't know about blinding the sensor, but there could be a point there in reducing noise due to readout smear. You have more black space to remove and possibly the readout smear noise doesn't accumulate as much (it's cumulative from one line to the other) as when you have a bright target.

Why Cassini did this I still don't realize as the required pointing accuracy was well within the limits for the narrow-angle camera. NH attitude accuracy is also very sufficient to accurately target stuff.

Posted by: tedstryk Feb 14 2007, 11:40 AM

When Hubble spends 20 orbits on Jupiter near closest approach, we may get some great color overlays.

Ted

Posted by: paranoid123 Feb 14 2007, 04:15 PM

I was going through Emily's New Horizons Jupiter Encounter timeline, and I noticed that there are several observation opportunities for the moons Elara (4 obs.) and Himalia (6 obs.). These two are the only non-Galilean moons observed.

I'm just curious, why were these two moons given that much attention? Was it simply orbital dynamics and that no other (non-Galilean) moon was near New Horizons during the Jupiter flyby?

It states that at closest point, Elara will be 29 km per pixel and Himalia will be 27 km per pixel. How does this compare with previous missions? I believe Cassini made an observation of Himalia before.

Posted by: Exploitcorporations Feb 14 2007, 04:24 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 14 2007, 01:00 AM) *
BTW, is that Red Junior on the eastern limb?


Red Jr. is the one a little to the west of the limb.

Posted by: JRehling Feb 14 2007, 05:16 PM

QUOTE (paranoid123 @ Feb 14 2007, 08:15 AM) *
I was going through Emily's New Horizons Jupiter Encounter timeline, and I noticed that there are several observation opportunities for the moons Elara (4 obs.) and Himalia (6 obs.). These two are the only non-Galilean moons observed.

I'm just curious, why were these two moons given that much attention? Was it simply orbital dynamics and that no other (non-Galilean) moon was near New Horizons during the Jupiter flyby?

It states that at closest point, Elara will be 29 km per pixel and Himalia will be 27 km per pixel. How does this compare with previous missions? I believe Cassini made an observation of Himalia before.


I'm not going to mess around with the ephemeris of all of the outer satellites and correlate the data with NH's trajectory, but a key point here is that Himalia and Elara are much bigger than most of the rocks out there, and they are #1 (by far) and #2 in size in that set. Leda, for example, is only 10 km in diameter, so NH wouldn't have much chance to get a decent image unless it virtually ran into Leda.

Himalia will be about 5 pixels across in the best image; Elara will be at best 3. Cassini's view of Himalia was eerily similar in resolution, also reported as 27 km.pixel. If you look at that image, you may be a little less excited about the NH opportunity, although the repeated observations will be valuable for determining the gross shape of "Jupiter VI", as Himalia was long known.

Posted by: elakdawalla Feb 14 2007, 05:28 PM

I don't know this for sure but I'd hazard a guess that the main point of the Himalia and Elara observations is as practice for the sequences designed for tracking and observing small KBOs.

--Emily

Posted by: tasp Feb 14 2007, 06:12 PM

Any chance of some spectral analysis of Himalia and Elara?

Maybe they are wandering KBOs . . . .

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 14 2007, 06:24 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 14 2007, 02:00 AM) *
BTW, is that Red Junior on the eastern limb?

As Exploitcorporations pointed out, Red jr. is to the lower left of the feature you were thinking of. That feature, in the STrB, can be seen in Christopher Go's astrophotography of Jupiter - http://www.christone.net/astro/jupiter/index.htm . See the images from Feb. 13 and the feature just to the lower right.

Posted by: stevesliva Feb 14 2007, 06:29 PM

QUOTE (paranoid123 @ Feb 14 2007, 11:15 AM) *
I'm just curious, why were these two moons given that much attention? Was it simply orbital dynamics and that no other (non-Galilean) moon was near New Horizons during the Jupiter flyby?

My relatively naive assumption was that there isn't much else to be looking at a week after closest approach, when the sun is behind Jupiter and most of the moons. Are the earlier observations an investment in making the last ones more valuable?

Posted by: JRehling Feb 14 2007, 07:16 PM

QUOTE (tasp @ Feb 14 2007, 10:12 AM) *
Any chance of some spectral analysis of Himalia and Elara?

Maybe they are wandering KBOs . . . .


Someone with a broader perspective can correct me, but it seems to me that spectral analysis in a case like this is done very well by a space telescope in Earth orbit. With little prayer of resolving spectral features spatially from NH and its ilk, the 1-pixel case could be done very well by HST and its successors.

Incidentally, Himalia makes a good candidate for being the first place in the outer solar system that humans would ever set foot (if people ever venture so far). It's far enough from Jupiter to render the radiation problem moot, and probably has a good chance of offering frozen H2O as an in-situ resource.

The nihilism of that outpost makes you ponder the point of ever sending someone so far, but it does make a good candidate if there is one.

Posted by: hendric Feb 14 2007, 07:23 PM

That feature right on the limb isn't a storm, it's a funky cloud pattern. You can see it here above and to the right of RSjr:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/images/HighRes/020707_6maps.gif

Looking at the gif and the new mosaic, is RSjr set to eat the oval directly to it's left? Maybe we'll get lucky and NH can watch the festivities...

Here's a blast from the past...Man, I wish we had a Jupiter orbiter!

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/archive/PIA02863.gif

Posted by: Steffen Feb 14 2007, 07:50 PM

Will NH only make Black-and-White images at Pluto as well?

Posted by: Alan Stern Feb 14 2007, 08:15 PM

The Himalia and Elara objectives center on phase curves and shape determinations.

-Alan

Posted by: john_s Feb 14 2007, 08:26 PM

QUOTE (ugordan @ Feb 14 2007, 11:10 AM) *
I don't know about blinding the sensor, but there could be a point there in reducing noise due to readout smear. You have more black space to remove and possibly the readout smear noise doesn't accumulate as much (it's cumulative from one line to the other) as when you have a bright target.

Why Cassini did this I still don't realize as the required pointing accuracy was well within the limits for the narrow-angle camera. NH attitude accuracy is also very sufficient to accurately target stuff.


Emily's right- we had to split Jupiter between multiple frames to avoid saturating the detector with readout smear. Reduction of noise was a useful side effect (though you see the image is still pretty noisy, because 90% of the signal in the raw image was readout smear, not the Jupiter image itself). But with Jupiter almost filling the fov, we would have had to make a mosaic anway, to avoid clipping the edge due to pointing uncertainties.

Can't speak for Cassini, though...

John.

Posted by: john_s Feb 14 2007, 08:30 PM

QUOTE (Steffen @ Feb 14 2007, 07:50 PM) *
Will NH only make Black-and-White images at Pluto as well?


No, we'll have color images of Pluto. We can't use our color camera on Jupiter because the planet is too bright- our color images would be saturated.

John.

Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 14 2007, 08:45 PM

Interesting discussion on the outer moons, but just a question, where the "asteroid-moons" Himalia + Elara + Lysithea + Leda imaged by any of the 6 precursor missions ?

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 14 2007, 09:43 PM

The official version of the February 10 mosaic is now available:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/021307_1.html

Posted by: Greg Hullender Feb 14 2007, 09:46 PM

Alan: Congratulations on your new role! I feel better about our government already. :-)

--Greg

Posted by: JRehling Feb 14 2007, 10:07 PM

QUOTE (PhilCo126 @ Feb 14 2007, 12:45 PM) *
Interesting discussion on the outer moons, but just a question, where the "asteroid-moons" Himalia + Elara + Lysithea + Leda imaged by any of the 6 precursor missions ?


Never as more than one pixel. I suppose it would have been hard to avoid getting them at least in the background of other shots from time to time, maybe without the event being noted.

Cassini took spectra of Himalia, revealing almost nothing.

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Feb 14 2007, 10:28 PM

Actually Himalia was a few pixels across in the Cassini images:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/target/Himalia

Not exactly the most interesting images in the world but sufficient to reveal Himalia's size.

Posted by: scalbers Feb 15 2007, 08:25 PM

Greetings,

I see this NH Jupiter movie at the following URL:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/020707_1.html

Looks nice. I wonder if it can be further post-processed to have some of the improved time interpolation and zonal wind correction we'd seen in some of the Cassini Jupiter movies. I suppose Bjorn's colorization techniques might be applied as well. That's a bit of a wish list, isn't it?

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Feb 15 2007, 08:57 PM

Pluto Mission News
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php
February 15, 2007

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Feb 21 2007, 11:29 PM

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php
Pluto Mission News
February 21, 2007

Posted by: ustrax Feb 22 2007, 10:40 AM

"Sure the Pluto system is eight years away, but when I watched a movie last weekend on TV from 1999, I realized that eight years seemed like yesterday. So onward we go — it's a long but worthy haul to the frontier that is the Kuiper Belt."

That's our Alan!
We're almost there! biggrin.gif

Posted by: stevesliva Feb 22 2007, 10:21 PM

Updates from the PI here and here:
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5108
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php

Posted by: John Flushing Feb 23 2007, 09:27 PM

Here is an article from the Baltimore Sun.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-hs.horizons23feb23,0,4671616.story?coll=bal-health-headlines

Posted by: elakdawalla Feb 24 2007, 12:59 AM

John Spencer just sent me a glog, including Alice data from Jupiter!! And a new Hubble image of Io with something erupting!!!!!

(I'm excited. smile.gif)

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000874/

--Emily

Posted by: nprev Feb 24 2007, 01:08 AM

Me too! smile.gif Thanks, Emily. Bet that volcanopele's bouncing off the walls... biggrin.gif

Posted by: JRehling Feb 24 2007, 01:13 AM

QUOTE (nprev @ Feb 23 2007, 05:08 PM) *
Me too! smile.gif Thanks, Emily. Bet that volcanopele's bouncing off the walls... biggrin.gif


Makes you appreciate what could be done with a dedicated Io observer in Earth orbit. With, of course, HST resolution.

That kind of mission wouldn't quite be merited, but something to add to HST "bandwidth" to provide frequent monitoring of time-varying targets would be nice.

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Feb 24 2007, 02:13 AM

I vaguely remember some ideas of a planetary space telescope (~1 meter aperture? - I don't remember), probably about 10 years ago. Could have been very useful although Earth-based telescopes with adaptive optics can perform miracles.

A completely different topic: Does anyone know if SPICE kernels (or to be specific: SPK kernels) for NH are available somewhere? I've searched the PDS NAIF node but didn't find anything. I was going to do an animation of the NH Jupiter flyby.

Posted by: tedstryk Feb 24 2007, 04:11 AM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Feb 24 2007, 02:13 AM) *
I vaguely remember some ideas of a planetary space telescope (~1 meter aperture? - I don't remember), probably about 10 years ago. Could have been very useful although Earth-based telescopes with adaptive optics can perform miracles.

A completely different topic: Does anyone know if SPICE kernels (or to be specific: SPK kernels) for NH are available somewhere? I've searched the PDS NAIF node but didn't find anything. I was going to do an animation of the NH Jupiter flyby.


There are too problems for earthbased telescopes. One is the fact that while on a great night with AO, they can provide great coverage, great conditions can't be counted on. More serious is the complete blockage of all but the nearest UV wavelengths and a lot of the infrared as well. This is the biggest advantage of a space telescope of that size.

Posted by: SFJCody Feb 24 2007, 12:36 PM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Feb 24 2007, 02:13 AM) *
I vaguely remember some ideas of a planetary space telescope (~1 meter aperture? - I don't remember), probably about 10 years ago. Could have been very useful although Earth-based telescopes with adaptive optics can perform miracles.



Reminds me of an idea I had for a Galileo 2 in two parts (someone else probably had this idea as well). Part 1: A 1m aperture (or greater*) imaging spacecraft placed completely outside Callisto's orbit that would do lots of high bandwidth distant observations of the Galileans and Jupiter but would have comparatively meagre propulsion and rad hardening requirements (cutting down on mass and increasing longevity). Part 2: a small, simple, highly rad-hardened fields and particles/radio science spacecraft that would make lots of close flybys of the Galileans for low bandwidth in situ observations.


*Maybe a scaled down version of the JWST design?

Posted by: CAP-Team Feb 25 2007, 11:18 AM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Feb 24 2007, 03:13 AM) *
A completely different topic: Does anyone know if SPICE kernels (or to be specific: SPK kernels) for NH are available somewhere? I've searched the PDS NAIF node but didn't find anything. I was going to do an animation of the NH Jupiter flyby.


I've been looking for these kernels for quite some time, but haven't found any.
They should exist since JPL's solar system simulator can simulate New Horizons.

Posted by: Bjorn Jonsson Feb 25 2007, 02:15 PM

New Horizons has been launched so they definitely exist. Fortunately I was able to get the information needed here:

http://pds-rings.seti.org/tools/ephem2_jupnh.html

A bit more messy for me than using the SPICE kernels directly but the result was equivalent:

http://www.mmedia.is/bjj/misc/new_horizons/jup_nh_flyby_aa.avi (4 MB)

This animation starts 7.5 million km from Jupiter on February 24 2007 00:00:00 and ends 7.5 million km from Jupiter on March 4 2007 11:30:00. The field of view is 5 degrees. The animation includes the Galilean satellites. The starfield is fictional. I made no attempts to make the transit times of Jovian cloud features like the Great Red Spot accurate. The Jupiter texture map is based on Cassini images.

EDIT: Bad URL fixed, the animation can now be downloaded.

Posted by: NMRguy Feb 26 2007, 05:45 PM

The latest http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php is up. Very exciting times!

"Today, we're studying atmospheric composition and structure of both Io and Callisto, mapping the surface compositions of Ganymede and Europa, searching for embedded moonlets in Jupiter's rings, obtaining high-resolution images of the Little Red Spot on Jupiter, imaging Io's volcanic plumes, and obtaining ring images to study the phase-angle behavior of their dust. We're also sending home eight hours of downlink data. All the while, we're studying Jupiter's magnetosphere. By late tomorrow we'll be at closest approach, but there are still twice as many observations tomorrow as we're making today!"

Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 26 2007, 06:09 PM

Thanks Björn for sharing that Jupiter flyby weblink... I'm curious to see what we'll hear from NH after the observations are finished by the end of June 2007... It's another 8 years to Pluto!
Exciting times indeed!

Posted by: tfisher Feb 27 2007, 02:10 AM

In the latest PI perspective, Alan Stern comments about the Boeing Star-48 upper booster stage which is cruising along on a similar trajectory to New Horizons. I wonder if there is any possibility of spotting this from New Horizons. It just brings to my mind one of the experiments proposed to study the pioneer anomaly, where an actively controlled and communicating mother spaceship travels along with a free-floating test mass. Since there are no active propulsion or thermal systems on the test mass, a large category of the mundane explanations for the anomaly are ruled out in studying the test mass's motion. Most likely the Star-48 stage is unsuitable for this purpose, but I wonder... :^)

Posted by: tasp Feb 27 2007, 04:21 AM

I wouldn't be surprised if the Star-48 stage is very unsuitable for this (but I would be happy to be wrong).

Any residual solid fuel in the casing might be outgassing and perturbing the trajectory. And this might be happening kind of randomly as it is probably spinning and tumbling and therefore is not thermally stable. Also, any plastics or fibreglas materials might also be outgassing too. IIRC, the thermal re-radiation might perturb the course too, and if it is spinning (nutating?) this might be another variable.

If the booster was put into a stable spin and a known orientation, and it stayed that way after NH deployment, maybe it would be suitable . . .



. . . with a laser retro-reflector and a dedicated instrument on NH to watch it.

Posted by: helvick Feb 27 2007, 07:24 AM

Given that the Star-48 is roughly half a million kilometers away it is well beyond the ability of NH to detect so this isn't practical unfortunately.

Posted by: Guido Feb 28 2007, 05:53 AM

Jupiter closest approach.

 

Posted by: Planet X Feb 28 2007, 06:23 AM

Closest approach to Jupiter occurred at 05:43:40 UTC Feb 28th, at a speed of 22.86 km/s. NH came to within 2.3 million km of Jupiter's center.

At 06:07:12 UTC, NH reached yet another milestone when it reached 800 million km from the sun. Now, it's on to Pluto! NH is currently 3.937 million km from Pluto. Later!

J P

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 28 2007, 06:41 AM

QUOTE (Planet X @ Feb 27 2007, 11:23 PM) *
NH is currently 3.937 million km from Pluto. Later!

SWEET!!!

wink.gif

Posted by: MarcF Feb 28 2007, 08:40 AM

Sorry, may be this is a stupid question, or someone else already mentioned it, but I did not find any mention about it:
I know that they are strict trajectory constraints to send the probe to Pluto, but at the time of the closest approach, almost all the moons are on the opposite side of Jupiter. It is especially the case for Callisto.
Wouldn't it have been possible to adjust the timing (few days) to get a better configuration ?
Marc.

Posted by: ugordan Feb 28 2007, 08:43 AM

I asked the same question after launch. I think John Spencer said that the minute the spacecraft launched they knew the date of Jupiter closest approach to an accuracy of a few hours and there was no maneuvering space to adjust on a timescale of days. The Pluto aimpoint keyhole obviously is a narrow one.

Posted by: ugordan Feb 28 2007, 09:53 AM

New mosaic: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/022807_3.html

Also:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/022807_2.html
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/022807_1.html

Posted by: Exploitcorporations Feb 28 2007, 10:08 AM

The turbulence to the west bears a very obviously striking resemblance to the GRS pre-2007. Hope that the similarities are useful in lieu of the studies planned for the now-invisible patterns near her big sister.

Posted by: MahFL Feb 28 2007, 01:27 PM

Can someone tell me when NH will start slowing down again ? yoahua's webpage shows NH still accelerating.

Thanks.

Posted by: helvick Feb 28 2007, 01:37 PM

Some more images available.

Little Red:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/022807_3.html

And Ganymede

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/022807_1.html



Posted by: ugordan Feb 28 2007, 05:10 PM

Here's a montage of the three Galileans. Smart sharpen applied to combat PSF blur and, of course, massively increase noise in the process. Magnified 2x.


Posted by: neave Feb 28 2007, 05:25 PM

Just a quick question - all the images so far have been black & white (monochrome), does anyone know if NH is fitted with different filters so color photos can be made too?

Thanks.

Posted by: ugordan Feb 28 2007, 05:28 PM

All the images so far are from the LORRI camera which is panchromatic so no color can be expected. NH does carry another instrument capable of color, the MVIC camera but it's a lower resolution instrument and is too sensitive to be used on sunlit surfaces at Jupiter. There will be color observations after closest approach, mainly looking at night sides and using jupitershine.
We can expect color releases, but nothing as spectacular as Cassini did.

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Feb 28 2007, 05:44 PM

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/022807.htm
JHU/APL
February 28, 2007

QUOTE
“We’re on our way to Pluto,” says New Horizons Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. “The swingby was a success; the spacecraft is on course and performed just as we expected.”

Posted by: dvandorn Feb 28 2007, 06:38 PM

QUOTE (Planet X @ Feb 28 2007, 12:23 AM) *
Closest approach to Jupiter occurred at 05:43:40 UTC Feb 28th, at a speed of 22.86 km/s. NH came to within 2.3 million km of Jupiter's center.

At 06:07:12 UTC, NH reached yet another milestone when it reached 800 million km from the sun. Now, it's on to Pluto! NH is currently 3.937 million km from Pluto. Later!

J P

Those numbers don't sound right -- we just passed 2.3 million km from Jupiter, and Pluto, which is eight years' travel yet away, is less than twice that same distance away, at less than 4 million km?

I'm thinking that the distance to Pluto ought to be billions, not millions, of km -- am I right?

-the other Doug

Posted by: remcook Feb 28 2007, 06:57 PM

i guess a comma and a period where mixed up

Posted by: Littlebit Feb 28 2007, 07:05 PM

QUOTE (MahFL @ Feb 28 2007, 06:27 AM) *
Can someone tell me when NH will start slowing down again ? yoahua's webpage shows NH still accelerating.

Thanks.

Looking at earlier predictions ~ early January, it appears closest approach was sooner than expected - several hours, even if Emily's graph was in another time zone. I have wondered if Yoahua's numbers were calulated, or based upon actual Doppler. If they don't start down real soon, you can assume Yoahua's calculator is based upon an earlier trajectory.

The peak velocity, relative to the sun, appears to be about 0.11km/s (0.4% absolute 2.9% delta) slower than earlier graphs suggest.

Posted by: helvick Feb 28 2007, 07:50 PM

slightly OT but as to comma/period mix ups, that's a whole 'nother area for international confusion that's almost but not quite as bad as the SI\Imperial thing. My kids use commas where I use periods and vice versa when it comes to writing large numbers and decimal parts. I just assumed that Planet X intended that to mean three thousand and whatnot million km and not 3 point whatnot million km.

Posted by: volcanopele Feb 28 2007, 07:54 PM

I know. I still got a good laugh out of it. If only we were 3 million km from Pluto...

Posted by: ToSeek Mar 1 2007, 02:43 AM

QUOTE (Bjorn Jonsson @ Jan 29 2007, 08:17 PM) *
For comparison purposes I did a a montage of global images from all of the spacecraft that have flown by Jupiter and imaged it (Galileo is omitted because there is no low phase global coverage):




The northern hemisphere is very similar in the NH and Voyager images. There are differences but some of these may be due to LORRI's greater wavelength coverage.

The southern hemisphere is somewhat similar to its appearance in the Cassini images with the biggest visible difference being that the region around the Great Red Spot appears far less turbulent. The GRS itself is noticeable smaller in longitudinal extent than it was during the Voyager flybys.

EDIT: The Cassini and Voyager images are calibrated green filtered images without any further processing. No clear-filter images were available. The Pioneer images are scanned color images I converted to grayscale and contrast enhanced slightly.


I've just returned from a presentation at APL by John Spencer (and others, but mostly him) which used the images here as one of his slides. He didn't announce the fact, but down in the corner it clearly indicated" Bjorn Jonsson/UMSF." I thought that was cool as I immediately knew where it came from.

Posted by: yaohua2000 Mar 1 2007, 04:31 PM

QUOTE (Littlebit @ Mar 1 2007, 03:05 AM) *
Looking at earlier predictions ~ early January, it appears closest approach was sooner than expected - several hours, even if Emily's graph was in another time zone. I have wondered if Yoahua's numbers were calulated, or based upon actual Doppler. If they don't start down real soon, you can assume Yoahua's calculator is based upon an earlier trajectory.

The peak velocity, relative to the sun, appears to be about 0.11km/s (0.4% absolute 2.9% delta) slower than earlier graphs suggest.


My calculator was based on server-side interpolated JPL Horizons data and client-side gravitational simulation, which uses ephemeris nh_ref_20060119_20150727_v02 (released 2006-Jun-13, predicted thereafter). The ephemeris has been updated three times (on Jan 21, Jan 24, Jun 13 2006 respectively) at Horizons.

Posted by: Littlebit Mar 1 2007, 06:04 PM

According to Space Reference, the velocity of New Horizons relative to the sun peaked at 22.85 m/s, which is about 1.8% less than the peak velocity predicted in Emily's chart - which also appears to be based upon the June ephemeris(?)

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.nl.html?pid=23490

Posted by: elakdawalla Mar 1 2007, 06:17 PM

This may be a stupid question, but does the peak velocity coincide with the moment of closest approach, or is there still acceleration going on after that, while the spacecraft is still pretty deep in the planet's gravity well?

My charts are based on the ones that John Spencer was developing for science planning, so they should be as up to date as anything.

--Emily

Posted by: ugordan Mar 1 2007, 06:28 PM

If we're talking about heliocentric velocity it might be possible to have the greatest velocity after C/A due to them being vectors. I'm not exactly sure. Jupiter-relative velocity should be highest just at C/A. I don't think it's a stupid question at all, these kinds of things aren't always intuitive. smile.gif

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Mar 1 2007, 07:13 PM

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/11/
News Release Number: STScI-2007-11
March 1, 2007 10:00 AM (EST)

Posted by: ugordan Mar 1 2007, 07:17 PM

Nice! I noticed the two box images taken in UV are two-filtered, taken some time (a couple of mins?) one after the other, based on color fringing of white ovals in the south. Looking at the north pole then, the brightest streaks align very well, but faint auroral emissions seen in blue and red don't evenly match. This suggests the auroral emission dances around quite a bit on a timescale of minutes.
If human eye could see it, that'd probably be a cool sight.

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Mar 1 2007, 07:37 PM

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/jupiter
Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center
March 1, 2007

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Mar 1 2007, 10:12 PM

Pluto Mission News
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php
March 1, 2007

Posted by: Guido Mar 2 2007, 10:18 AM

QUOTE (AlexBlackwell @ Mar 1 2007, 11:12 PM) *
Pluto Mission News
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php
March 1, 2007

Copy from the above link:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/images/030107_image1_hr.jpg
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/images/030107_image2_hr.jpg
The graphics illustrate the boost in speed, over time, that New Horizons gets from flying past Jupiter.

 

Posted by: ustrax Mar 2 2007, 12:01 PM

Can someone tell what is the feature appearing in the end of http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/images/HighRes/020707_6maps.gif at 30º Lat and 90º Long?
Is it from Jupiter or a moon? It only appears in the end...
Thanks.

Posted by: ugordan Mar 2 2007, 12:07 PM

It's either Io or Europa. I'd go with Europa.

Posted by: remcook Mar 2 2007, 12:08 PM

there's an accompanying shadow at 170 longitude, so that seems a moon to my unexperienced eye. dunno which one

Posted by: Planet X Mar 2 2007, 03:18 PM

QUOTE (dvandorn @ Feb 28 2007, 12:38 PM) *
Those numbers don't sound right -- we just passed 2.3 million km from Jupiter, and Pluto, which is eight years' travel yet away, is less than twice that same distance away, at less than 4 million km?

I'm thinking that the distance to Pluto ought to be billions, not millions, of km -- am I right?

-the other Doug


Whoops! That should have been 3.967 billion km to Pluto! My bad!

J P

Posted by: Littlebit Mar 2 2007, 03:38 PM

QUOTE (Guido @ Mar 2 2007, 03:18 AM) *
Copy from the above link:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/images/030107_image1_hr.jpg
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/images/030107_image2_hr.jpg
The graphics illustrate the boost in speed, over time, that New Horizons gets from flying past Jupiter.

Alan's charts seem to agree with Emily's - placing the maximum velocity about 11 hours after closest approach. My feeble mental integrater tells me this is the period where NH's is 'hookybobbing', flirting with Jupiter's gravity to steal kinetic energy from Jupiter with no intention of giving it back. (If Jupiter appears a little bigger in the sky, blame NH - it is something like 3.2x10^-47 picometers closer cool.gif

Whats this MPH thing?

Posted by: elakdawalla Mar 2 2007, 04:12 PM

For what it's worth, the Little Red Spot and gal sat images have all been added to the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/...of course, all most of these have already been released in processed form. According to yesterday's glog from John there won't be any more coming down from the spacecraft for "about a week." There are two more frames from the Io observation with shorter exposures -- maybe some of you magicians can try to process a version that shows both the dayside and the nightside detail simultaneously.

EDIT: I just noticed four frames from the 21st showing Jupiter's limbs. Odd! Those aren't on my timeline. blink.gif

EDIT AGAIN: I just got an explanation of those limb pics from Joe Peterson at SwRI: "These were intentionally aimed off-Jupiter center for testing the camera (so just the limb shows), but they do show the scale and proximity to Jupiter nicely!"


--Emily

Posted by: JRehling Mar 2 2007, 04:57 PM

FYI, qualitative physics is hard to get results with and quantitative physics is just plain no fun (and in the three body situation, unsolvable), but if you'd like an existence proof that maximum velocity needn't occur at closest approach, imagine a satellite in a distant elliptical orbit around Neptune. Nereid will do. It has an orbital velocity with respect to Neptune varying from 0.4 km/s to 3.0 km/s. Neptune has an orbital velocity of 5.4 km/s.

If the node of Nereid's orbit were such that its top velocity were subtractive from the Neptune-Sun velocity, but the slowest velocity were additive, then it would be moving at 2.4 km/s WRT the Sun at closest approach to Neptune, but 5.8 km/s WRT the Sun at apoapsis. (Imagine that the apoapsis were 180 degrees away from the Sun from Neptune's perspective and that the orbit were prograde and in the ecliptic... this is a gedankenexperiment anyway.)

That's a much more profound case than possible with a hyperbolic orbit (WRT the planet), but the same principle applies. The Jupiter encounter bends NH's path to be less radial. As that bending occurs, NH's great speed WRT Jupiter is added to its speed WRT the Sun. In the short run around C/A, NH will neither gain nor lose much speed WRT the Sun nor Jupiter, but the bending makes their two effects more additive than orthogonal. So it makes sense that at least on some tiny time scale the speed immediately after C/A would be greater than the speed the same interval before C/A. That's too hand-wavy, of course, to tell whether the lag would be a picosecond or a day, but maximum speed WRT the Sun should be *some* interval after C/A for all such gravity assists.

Did my hands stop waving long enough for this to make sense to anyone?

Posted by: ugordan Mar 2 2007, 05:21 PM

Here's my attempt to merge the best of both worlds, the sunlit crescent and nightside:



And here's the best I could pull out of Europa. Since deconvolution enhances noise, I stacked the two exposures with a greater weight to the longer exposure, masked out the overexposed bits in it and combined and sharpened the result to remove PSF. It's still a bit noisy, but it's greatly improved over my previous attempt. Magnified 2x.

Posted by: Ant103 Mar 2 2007, 06:35 PM

Very good Ugordan smile.gif

Here my attempt to an HDR on Io :



We see clearly many details in the panache wink.gif.

Posted by: 4th rock from the sun Mar 2 2007, 09:49 PM

Here's my version of the Little Red Spot mosaic from the raws. The images were high-passed to remove any light gradients, and then unsharpened to enhance cloud feature contrast. Finally, a synthetic light gradient was created and put into the picture, to retain the original look.

Lots of details visible... impressive!!!

http://img403.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lrsio0.jpg

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Mar 2 2007, 10:13 PM

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMTUJN0LYE_index_0.html
ESA
2 March 2007

Posted by: Ant103 Mar 2 2007, 11:13 PM

Oops!
(this learn me to read too fast... -_-)

Posted by: TritonAntares Mar 3 2007, 10:03 AM

Hi,

I'm a bit wondering about pics - or say better one pic - from Jupiter's outermost giant moon Callisto.
Why wasn`t it put on the agenda for this prereleased images series? Probably being too far away?

This preview implements something different - Callisto appearing a bit larger than Europa.

Nice here, the comparison between LORRI, LEISA and MVIC image scales - that's why we won't see any spectecular color images by MVIC!

Bye.

Posted by: ustrax Mar 5 2007, 05:48 PM

QUOTE (AlexBlackwell @ Mar 2 2007, 10:13 PM) *
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMTUJN0LYE_index_0.html
ESA
2 March 2007


http://spaceurope.blogspot.com/2007/03/rosetta-050307-update-with-missions.html
Rita Schulz, Rosetta Project Scientist

Posted by: Toma B Mar 5 2007, 11:10 PM

New PI's Perspective March 5, 2007
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piPerspectives/piPerspective_current.php

QUOTE
...while the "tip of the tip" of the iceberg is now on the ground to whet appetites, we won't have the entire dataset we've taken - all 36 gigabits! - on the ground until at least late April. But don't despair, we will begin downlinking operations this Wednesday, March 7...

This is just great!!!
smile.gif smile.gif smile.gif smile.gif smile.gif smile.gif

QUOTE
...you should expect to see nearly weekly data releases coming from New Horizons throughout March and April.

I wish there is some Alan Stern in ESA too... sad.gif

Posted by: AlexBlackwell Mar 6 2007, 01:29 AM

http://planetary.org/radio/show/00000226/
Planetary Radio
Monday, March 5, 2007

Guests:
John Spencer, New Horizons science team member
Alan Stern, Principal Investigator, New Horizons

P.S. Check out the http://planetary.org/explore/topics/planetary_radio_trivia/. And no, the answer is not prairie dog burrows in Jason's back yard in Kansas biggrin.gif

Posted by: DEChengst Mar 9 2007, 09:46 PM

NH observation of Jupiter's ring system:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/030907.html

Posted by: mgrodzki Mar 10 2007, 08:08 PM

how embarrasing for jupiter to have such a PUNY ring system. really…

Posted by: nprev Mar 11 2007, 06:17 AM

Perhaps not surprising, though. Jupiter not only has a sharper gravity gradient than Saturn, it also has a much higher indigneous radiation environment, a greater overall impact rate due to its proximity to the Asteroid Belt, and four massive inner moons...all of these are erosive factors that Saturn lacks.

All that being said, why are Uranus' and Neptune's rings much more like those of Jupiter than Saturn? I'm thinking the answer lies in extremely energetic disturbances like whatever tipped Uranus and the capture of Triton. Both of these events would have presumably destroyed most of any pre-existing extensive ring system...and, in fact, Jupiter may have been slammed around even more, but with few visible effects in the current era due to its enormous mass.

Posted by: mgrodzki Mar 11 2007, 09:12 AM

well, with neptune… i would think an event such as the capture of triton could also create a ring system through the destruction or collision of a lesser moon. is the theory of ring creation based more upon being a left-over of creation or are they the result of later cataclysmic events?

Posted by: Ant103 Mar 11 2007, 04:21 PM

Hum...
You prefer Jupiter like this rolleyes.gif ?


Posted by: JRehling Mar 12 2007, 03:00 AM

QUOTE (nprev @ Mar 10 2007, 11:17 PM) *
Perhaps not surprising, though. Jupiter not only has a sharper gravity gradient than Saturn, it also has a much higher indigneous radiation environment, a greater overall impact rate due to its proximity to the Asteroid Belt, and four massive inner moons...all of these are erosive factors that Saturn lacks.


I think Saturn has less radiation because of the rings, not vice versa.

Who knows how much of this is in a steady state? Maybe 1 billion years ago, Neptune had the impressive ring system and Saturn had puny ones.

This could also be matter of catastrophic events that are so rare that we can't assign statistical significance to them. Maybe a big impactor just missed Amalthea by a whisker, whereas an impact would have turned IT into a ring.

Posted by: JTN Mar 14 2007, 04:19 PM

Bunch of new raws appearing at the http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/, including the rings and Tvashtar-plume-in-shadow shots. Seems to be a bit broken at the moment, though (some thumbnails and images missing).

Edit: oops, they seem to have disappeared again - perhaps an accidental early release? I hope I'm not giving anything away if I say that some ring-moon-search images appeared to be on the ground.

Posted by: NMRguy Mar 15 2007, 08:47 AM

Well, they're back. 23 new ring photos (plus Io).

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/index.php?page=1

Posted by: Sunspot Mar 15 2007, 09:14 AM

I'm not seeing them blink.gif

Posted by: jaredGalen Mar 15 2007, 09:22 AM

Wow, that plume is really incredible
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003501/lor_0035015240_0x630_sci_2.jpg

Posted by: NMRguy Mar 15 2007, 09:22 AM

Hmmm. I'm not sure why--they are still visible for me starting with [2007-02-24, 13:30:03 UTC] at decreasing at ten minute intervals down to [2007-02-24, 09:50:03 UTC]. The rings are clearly visible.

Posted by: ugordan Mar 15 2007, 09:42 AM

I'm not seeing them either. Maybe some cacheing issue somewhere. A direct link jaredGalen posted shows the image so it's probably the index page that has issues. I noticed this even before that new images would appear and then misteriously disappear again for a while.

Posted by: stevesliva Mar 15 2007, 03:38 PM

I'm seeing them.

Wondering if this means that they found a moon:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/view_obs.php?image=data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003462/lor_0034628523_0x630_sci_1.jpg&utc_time=2007-02-24%3Cbr%3E13:10:03%20UTC&description=Jupiter+ring+-+search+for+embedded+moons&target=JUPITER&range=6.6M%20km&exposure=4000%20msec
or this and this together!
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/view_obs.php?image=data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003461/lor_0034617723_0x630_sci_1.jpg&utc_time=2007-02-24%3Cbr%3E10:10:03%20UTC&description=Jupiter+ring+-+search+for+embedded+moons&target=JUPITER&range=6.8M%20km&exposure=4000%20msec
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/soc/view_obs.php?image=data/jupiter/level2/lor/jpeg/003461/lor_0034618923_0x630_sci_1.jpg&utc_time=2007-02-24%3Cbr%3E10:30:03%20UTC&description=Jupiter+ring+-+search+for+embedded+moons&target=JUPITER&range=6.8M%20km&exposure=4000%20msec

Posted by: ustrax Mar 15 2007, 03:53 PM

QUOTE (stevesliva @ Mar 15 2007, 03:38 PM) *
I'm seeing them.

Wondering if this means that they found a moon:


First image close-up


Second image close-up

Posted by: stevesliva Mar 15 2007, 03:59 PM

There are several 4s exposures on the second page that clearly show that rock following the path of the ring.

Great animation potential.

Posted by: djellison Mar 15 2007, 04:31 PM

Not perfectly lined up - but that is 3hrs 40 mins of ring obs at 50%

Doug


 

Posted by: stevesliva Mar 15 2007, 05:30 PM

Nice!

Is that Adrastea or Metis?

Posted by: ustrax Mar 15 2007, 05:31 PM

Great views Doug! smile.gif

Welcome to the Artifact's kingdom! tongue.gif


Posted by: IM4 Mar 15 2007, 05:37 PM

QUOTE (stevesliva @ Mar 15 2007, 03:38 PM) *
Wondering if this means that they found a moon:

maybe. However 2 known moons are already orbiting inside Jupiter main ring : Adrastea (a=128700 km) and Metis (127700 km), whereas main ring extends from 123000 to 128900 km. I bet it was Metis smile.gif

Posted by: elakdawalla Mar 15 2007, 06:30 PM

There is one obvious object in the animation that seems to track around the rings, right at the beginning, and if I've plugged things in to the Jupiter viewer correctly I think that's Adrastea. But the shape is an illusion -- if my math is correct, Adrastea should only be a fraction of a pixel in size at New Horizons' range of 6.7 million km. I'm confused about the squiggly shapes of the various spots in these pictures. They must be background stars because they form a field that moves at a constant rate over time, but I don't know why they'd appear as squiggles in 4-second exposures rather than as parallel straight lines. It's like New Horizons is wobbling.

--Emily

Posted by: volcanopele Mar 15 2007, 06:53 PM

I thought that was Amalthea. Size should be about right.

Posted by: elakdawalla Mar 15 2007, 07:05 PM

I don't think so. I think we're looking at a smeared point source. Check out the first two frames. There are dimmer point sources that have exactly the same shape as the brightest one. I've circled them all in red.


In the next frame, the shape is different, and all the other smeared point sources have the same shape. I copied the red-circle layer and it fits over those background point sources, which must be stars.

Here's the shot from the Jupiter Viwer showing the west ring ansa.


--Emily

Posted by: helvick Mar 15 2007, 07:12 PM

Maybe it was deliberately smeared across multiple pixels - possibly to prevent too much bleeding from overexposure ?

Posted by: ugordan Mar 15 2007, 07:42 PM

What would the point of a long exposure purposeful smearing be if you wanted to prevent overexposure? I think the smear is due to the s/c attitude drift, it's thruster controlled and the s/c is pretty light so it's tough to keep it steady. Typical exposures at Pluto will be 100 ms and this is 4 seconds so it's reasonable to suggest the spacecraft is simply not stable enough for such long exposures.

From Emily's graphs it's a pretty strong case that the bright blob is Adrastea, effectively a point source but smeared to a large "potato" shape.

Posted by: john_s Mar 16 2007, 03:13 AM

That's pretty much correct, except to say that we are stable "enough"- we're happy to accept a few pixels of smear in order to get these unprecedented ring images. We maintain our pointing for these long exposures with frequent thruster firings (about once per second), which are sufficient to keep our targets within a ~4x4 pixel box in the LORRI images. Hence the squiggly stars. We are actually thrilled with how well this technique is working (we hadn't had much chance to test it before the flyby)- pretty good for a little spacecraft with no reaction wheels...

John.

Posted by: Stu Mar 16 2007, 08:41 AM

John,

Just to let you know that I "premiered" some of the NH images at a talk I gave here in Kendal last night for the UK's "National Science and Engineering Week". The talk at Kendal Library was attended by 30 or so people (not bad for a windy, rainy Lake District night!) and they were all thrilled to be able to see the latest images of Io and Jupiter's rings. The pictures of Tvashtar's incredible plume made a big impression - I showed the raw B&W ones and sneaked in one of my colourised versions too ( making sure everyone knew it was "unofficial and probably horribly inaccurate"! ) and there was a lot of "wow!" reaction to them.

One thing that was brought home to me last night was how valuable these talks and events are for sharing news and images with people who might be on the wrong side of the so-called "digital divide". I think we often assume that everyone is online now, or can at least get online, but that's just not true. There were a couple of (very) low income families there last night, and the mum of one of them, who had brought her three space-mad kids along, told me they have no computers at home and can't usually afford to pay for library net access either, so were especially grateful to be able to see the latest pictures at the talk because they had no other way of seeing them.

So, anyone from the MER or NH or CASSINI missions reading this, thank you again for making your images available to us "out here" so quickly and so freely; it makes the job of space educators and Outreach speakers like myself so much easier, and really does make a difference - not just to us "space nuts" but to people out there who dip into the world of space exploration when their everyday lives allow.

* Just noticed: yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of me joining UMSF... how time flies... ohmy.gif

Posted by: TritonAntares Mar 16 2007, 09:19 AM

QUOTE (djellison @ Mar 15 2007, 05:31 PM) *
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=9762
Not perfectly lined up - but that is 3hrs 40 mins of ring obs at 50%
Nice animation! As some of you are questioning which moon this actually is, I also do....
The moon seems to be a bit large for Adrastea (geoid of 26×20×16 km) or Metis (diameter 43 km).

However, could it be 262×146×134 km sized Amalthea orbiting Jupiter in 181400 km?
The Gossamer-Ring - fed by Amalthea - should be seen in your animation then.
But is this ringpart bright enough?

Here an instructive sketch:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/PIA01627_Ringe.jpg

Bye.

Posted by: ugordan Mar 16 2007, 09:52 AM

TritonAntares: It is Adrastea, read the above posts. It appears large due to overexposure so the camera point spread function blurs a point source into a finite smudge and it's further elongated due to the long exposure smear. The moon is nowhere near the size suggested by the image pixels.

John: Ah yes.. forgot about the 4x4 binning mode for faint KBOs. I assume this 1x1 binning was also sort of a test to see how stable the pointing remains? It does appear to me the streaks are longer than 4 pixels, but nothing major.

Posted by: john_s Mar 16 2007, 04:23 PM

Yes, this mode (we call it "Relative Control Mode") was designed for our 4x4 binned "OpNav" images. But we use RCM with 1x1 binned images on the rings because (a) sometimes we get lucky with the smear and can actually get the benefit of the full resolution, or most of it, and ( b ) we get more dynamic range in 1x1 mode- 4x4 mode images saturate at lower brightness levels.

John.

Posted by: JTN Mar 16 2007, 04:51 PM

QUOTE (Sunspot @ Mar 15 2007, 09:14 AM) *
I'm not seeing them blink.gif

Mutter. I'm still getting this -- I saw new stuff yesterday (7 pages), but now I'm back down to 6 pages.

In non-LORRI news, a http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/missionPhotos/pages/031607.html has just appeared. Looks like it'll need some buggering about to turn this data into a (false) colour image - stuff moves between the three frames.

Posted by: punkboi Mar 16 2007, 04:53 PM

Still waiting on seeing (TRUE) color images of Jupiter by NH... biggrin.gif

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