New Horizons Jupiter Encounter Options

[ugordan]

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 ?):

[MahFL]

Some new approach charts have been added to this page.

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

[infocat13]

Some new approach charts have been added to this page.

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

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.

[Thu]

Quite an update with easy to understand charts.

40 million km and one Earth-Moon distance to Jupiter

[yaohua2000]

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

[alan]

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

[ugordan]

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!

[nprev]

Alan has a weblog on the US Astronomy magazine website here, and discusses entering Jupiter's sphere of influence.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

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.

[Greg Hullender]

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.

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

--Greg

[yaohua2000]

2007-02-09 23:46:31

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

[stevesliva]

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.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

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.

[JRehling]

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.

[djellison]

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

Doug