New Horizons, Pluto and the Kuiper belt Options

[Decepticon]

^I have looked myself and have yet to find anything.


I also have a question about NH science observations during encounter.

Are the science instruments all oriented towards the same focal point?
Im curious if NH has to adjust itself for each of the instrumentation.

[Decepticon]

Spoke Mins to soon.... here we go.

http://www.space.com/16531-pluto-fifth-moo...-discovery.html

And S&T article has a picture...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Plutos...-162062385.html

[ceramicfundament...]

lots of deets on sky and telescope: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Plutos...-162062385.html

looks like the diameter is 10-25km and it orbits in a 1:3 resonance with charon, inside the orbits of the other small moons.

[Paolo]

details of the discovery of P5 are in IAUC 9253, which can be accessed only by subscribers.
Sky & Telescope has picked up the story: Pluto's Moons: Five and Counting

[Paolo]

this (from http://www.dearastronomer.com/2012/07/11/f...to-discovered/) appears to be the text of the IAU Circular:

NEW SATELLITE OF PLUTO: P5

M. R. Showalter (SETI Institute), H. A. Weaver (Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University), S. A. Stern, A. J. Steffl, M. W. Buie, W. J. Merline (Southwest Research Institute), M. J. Mutchler, R. Soummer (Space Telescope Science Institute) and H. B. Throop (NASA Headquarters) report the discovery of a fifth satellite of Pluto. The object, provisionally designated S/2012 (134340) 1 and referred to as “P5″, was detected in 14 separate sets of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/UVIS. Each image set comprises 11-12 three-minute exposures. Upon co-adding, S/N = 5-8 in five sets and S/N = 3-5 in nine sets where the detection was somewhat degraded by P5′s close proximity of Pluto II (Nix). Times and positions are as follows:

June 26.51-26.67 UT, 3 sets, 1″.99 from Pluto at p.a. 158 deg
June 27.78-27.94 UT, 3 sets, 1″.71 from Pluto at p.a. 182 deg
June 29.64-29.80 UT, 3 sets, 1″.44 from Pluto at p.a. 219 deg
July 7.42- 7.58 UT, 3 sets, 1″.76 from Pluto at p.a. 352 deg
July 9.41- 9.51 UT, 2 sets, 1″.42 from Pluto at p.a. 31 deg

The satellite’s mean magnitude is V = 27.0 +/- 0.3, making it 4 percent as bright as Pluto II (Nix) and half as bright as S/2011 (134340) 1. The diameter depends on the assumed geometric albedo: 10 km if p_v = 0.35, or 25 km if p_v =0.04. The motion is consistent with a body traveling on a near-circular orbit coplanar with the other satellites. The inferred mean motion is 17.8 +/- 0.1 degrees per day (P = 20.2 +/- 0.1 days), and the projected radial distance from Pluto is 42000 +/- 2000 km, placing P5 interior to Pluto II (Nix) and close to the 1:3 mean motion resonance with Pluto I (Charon).

[Paolo]

and a release from the HST
Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

[Ian R]

Looks like P5 (and a possible sixth moon) were suspected even last year:

[john_s]

Nice to note that last TCM could be performed as late as 10 million kms from Pluto allowing more time to understand hazards around Pluto system... may be even using LORRI?
Knowing the high priority to keep the spacecraft safe, I guess we'll have less trajectory choices for next KBO encounters ?

We'll be doing deep searches for additional satellites with LORRI as we approach Pluto- the last search will be about 18 days before closest approach, and our last chance to change to our pre-designed bail-out trajectory will be ten days before closest approach. So we'll be very busy that week! The amount of fuel needed to switch to the bail-out trajectory will be quite small, so it shouldn't affect the KBO encounters very much. But of course Pluto is our highest priority, so if we find we do need to sacrifice a KBO encounter in order to keep us safe at Pluto, it won't be a difficult decision.

More immediately, we're going to have to see whether we can squeeze some useful observations of P5 into our encounter plan!

John

[Phil Stooke]

When I posted my link to the New Horizons presentation above I should have added a link to the whole meeting agenda with other presentations as well. Here it is.

Phil

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/meetings/jul2012/agenda.shtml

[Astro0]

Pluto Closest Approach - 14 July 2015, 11:49:59 UTC

On this day, three years from now, we'll be receiving the closest views of Pluto.

GO NEW HORIZONS!

(and tomorrow, it will be just 1,000 days before 'Closest Approach Science Operations' begin)

[tasp]

Gee, how many more moons can turn up in 3 years ??




I'm wondering if dynamical analysis of the moons orbits (love dem near resonances!) might give some confidence of a 'good' flyby distance for avoiding potential stuff we can't see from here. It also looks like the approach phase is going to be far more interesting (dramatic?) than anyone suspected at launch.

Somewhat encouraged that any possible KBO targets might have a moon(let) too. We are already guaranteed (as far as such things go) of seeing more objects with NH than we thought when the mission was announced and they were hoping for 2 follow on targets then. Amazing Pluto is hording goodies for us conveniently in one spot.

Would the Planetary Society benefit from some public outreach involvement in suggesting moon names ?

[nprev]

TPS has nothing to do with naming new moons; that's strictly an IAU function.

Furthermore, it's the right of the discoverer(s) to propose names.

[tasp]

Anyone can suggest a name.

[John Flushing]

It is my humble opinion that the I.A.U. ought to delay choosing names for P4 and P5, until the scientific community knows for sure whether P6 exists. I would imagine there are others who hold my view.

ADMIN NOTE: All, that's a discussion that we do not need to have go any further.
Under that convention, the IAU would have to wait forever, until every possible moon/moonlet is found before naming them.

[Chmee]

At what distance from Pluto does NH's camera have better resolution than Hubble's views?