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New Pluto images discussed
stevesliva
post Feb 2 2010, 10:25 PM
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Searched sci.astro.hubble for "Kuiper."

QUOTE
DAILY REPORT #5021
PERIOD COVERED: 5am January 27 - 5am January 28, 2010 (DOY 027/10:00z-028/10:00z) WFC3/UVIS/IR 11644
A Dynamical-Compositional Survey of the Kuiper Belt: A New Window Into the Formation of the Outer Solar System
The eight planets overwhelmingly dominate the solar system by mass, but their small numbers, coupled with their stochastic pasts, make it impossible to construct a unique formation history from the dynamical or compositional characteristics of them alone. In contrast, the huge numbers of small bodies scattered throughout and even beyond the planets, while insignificant by mass, provide an almost unlimited number of probes of the statistical conditions, history, and interactions in the solar system. To date, attempts to understand the formation and evolution of the Kuiper Belt have largely been dynamical
simulations where a hypothesized starting condition is evolved under the gravitational influence of the early giant planets and an attempt is made to reproduce the current observed populations. With little compositional information known for the real Kuiper Belt, the test particles in the simulation are free to have any formation location and history as long as they end at the correct point. Allowing compositional information to guide and constrain the formation,
thermal, and collisional histories of these objects would add an entire new dimension to our understanding of the evolution of the outer solar system. While ground based compositional studies have hit their flux limits already with only a few objects sampled, we propose to exploit the new capabilities of WFC3 to perform the first ever large-scale dynamical-compositional study of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and their progeny to study the chemical, dynamical, and
collisional history of the region of the giant planets. The sensitivity of the WFC3 observations will allow us to go up to two magnitudes deeper than our ground based studies, allowing us the capability of optimally selecting a target list for a large survey rather than simply taking the few objects that can be measured, as we have had to do to date. We have carefully constructed a sample of 120 objects which provides both overall breadth, for a general
understanding of these objects, plus a large enough number of objects in the individual dynamical subclass to allow detailed comparison between and within these groups. These objects will likely define the core Kuiper Belt compositional sample for years to come. While we have many specific results anticipated to come from this survey, as with any project where the field is rich, our current knowledge level is low, and a new instrument suddenly appears which can exploit vastly larger segments of the population, the potential for discovery -- both anticipated and not -- is extraordinary.


Mike Brown has been hinting at thoughts along those lines. i.e., when we found Santa and Easterbunny, they were points of light, now we're learning a lot more...

So they looked at Pluto and 119 of its closest friends.
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Hungry4info
post Feb 2 2010, 10:27 PM
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That, almost certainly, is what this is about.


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ElkGroveDan
post Feb 2 2010, 10:49 PM
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I get the feeling that rather than some kind of numeric study of relationships between bodies, it will relate to specific images of Pluto, its family and distinct observations made thereof.


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ngunn
post Feb 2 2010, 10:52 PM
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Well done stevesliva! (Now, what's going on in the rest of the universe?)

EDIT: But you could be right EGD!
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volcanopele
post Feb 3 2010, 12:05 AM
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If the dates covered in that post are the dates the data was acquired, I strongly doubt the upcoming press conference is related to it. One week is just not enough time to interpret the spectra obtained and organize them into spectral classes, IMHO. I'm with Dan on this. Based on Mike Brown's tweet, I would also expect improved knowledge of the distribution of methane ices on the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.


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stevesliva
post Feb 3 2010, 01:07 AM
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QUOTE (volcanopele @ Feb 2 2010, 08:05 PM) *
If the dates covered in that post are the dates the data was acquired, I strongly doubt the upcoming press conference is related to it.


I was wondering about that, too. Almost immediate. But there was surprisingly nothing earlier. Different keywords might help.
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NGC3314
post Feb 3 2010, 02:22 AM
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The archive lists 472 observations to date on program 11644, some back in September 2009, so they could possibly have enough results from that to talk about. This gets images from 0.6-1.5 microns, a couple of sets per object. Looks like they have more than half their sample observed already.
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Hungry4info
post Feb 3 2010, 01:22 PM
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Doing a little research, I find that HST has already directly detected dark spots on Pluto.


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ElkGroveDan
post Feb 3 2010, 02:15 PM
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Dark spots indeed. As we are a day away still, I'll go ahead and post these "best so-far" images of Pluto including the surface map generated from a full rotation over 6 days in 1994. The colored image I believe is from that same sequence. And then the 2006 image which captured the whole family.

If these were taken with the "old" Hubble I can't wait to see what the new and improved version looks like.
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Hungry4info
post Feb 3 2010, 02:39 PM
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This image has my vote for "the best so far."
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tedstryk
post Feb 3 2010, 05:36 PM
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Here is a more natural take on one of the 1996 images (not my work).



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elakdawalla
post Feb 3 2010, 05:48 PM
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Ted and Hungry4info, what are the sources of those two images?


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Hungry4info
post Feb 3 2010, 05:55 PM
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Ted's is HST (And was posted by ElkGroveDan as well). The one I posted is from Keck.


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machi
post Feb 3 2010, 06:47 PM
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QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ Feb 3 2010, 03:15 PM) *
If these were taken with the "old" Hubble I can't wait to see what the new and improved version looks like.


I don't think, that new images will be with much better resolution, than old ones. Old images were taken in UV by FOC camera and these images were diffraction limited.
All new cameras in Hubble have bigger pixel sizes. But new cameras have much better sensitivity, so I expect images with much better contrast.


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Hungry4info
post Feb 3 2010, 06:49 PM
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Are you sure? Comparing the images of Jupiter from WFPC2 and 3, it sure looked a whole lot more detailed.


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